The Miami Heat will make their sixth Finals appearance tonight at 9 p.m. It marks the third consecutive decade the Heat have reached the NBA’s biggest stage. And they’ll face the Los Angeles Lakers, the franchise Pat Riley coached to establish his status as “one of the greatest minds the game has ever had,” in the words of LeBron James.
Although it won’t happen on the court, perhaps the biggest storyline of this Finals is Riley vs. James. In the summer of 2014, James left Miami in free agency after Riley said in a press conference “you got to stay together, if you got the guts” and “you don’t find the first door and run out of it.