Riley to GQ on Wade’s Departure: We Insulted Him, I Insulted Him

We’d very much recommend checking out Alex Wong’s oral history of Dwyane Wade’s NBA career on GQ. Wong dives into a variety of subject, but we found particularly interesting Pat Riley’s quotes on Wade’s departure and how it could have been prevented.

When LeBron left, we shouldn’t have messed around. After four trips to the Finals and three championships, we should have simply maxed Dwyane out. We should have done that and not used Dwyane, our franchise player, as a widget on the widget board.

We insulted him. I insulted him, and you don’t do that to your guy.

I was really disappointed when he left and I blame nobody but myself for mishandling all of it.

Riley has become philosophical about what happened in both the departures of LeBron James and Wade in the years that followed. We’re left to wonder what more could’ve been done in the moment or were egos to strong?

You can read the full quote here:

"i was really disappointed when he left and i blame nobody but myself for mishandling all of it. i never sensed his hurt or his feeling of being dismissed."

pat riley on dwyane leaving miami in 2016. full quote didn't make it into the oral history: pic.twitter.com/TGMPNWSG6J

— alex (@steven_lebron) April 10, 2019