Pat Riley Admits He's "Floored" Dwyane Wade Left the Heat, Is Unsure of Chris Bosh's Return

Pat Riley blamed himself for Dwyane Wade's departure from South Beach to Chicago.

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Image via Complex Original
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It's been a cruel summer for Miami Heat fans after seeing undoubtedly the greatest player in franchise history, Dwyane Wade, leave the team to sign with the Bulls. D-Wade put in 13 years with the Heat and led the team to their three NBA titles, and now people are deeming team president Pat Riley as the culprit who couldn't keep the future Hall of Famer to remain in Miami and finish his career there.

After initially admitting he was "so sad" about D-Wade leaving earlier this month, Riley shared more lamentations about Wade in a press conference on Saturday. He admitted that the onus fell on him for not getting involved quickly enough during the contract negotiations, and he didn't nip the gridlock in the bud to keep him happy. 

Riley said:

"What happened with Dwyane floored me. I'm going to miss the fact of what I might have had planned for him and his future and how I saw the end and my thought process in how I could see his end here with the Heat. ... It's my responsibility to sort of make that happen. I didn't make it happen. Dwyane left, and the buck stops here. I have great regret I didn't put myself in the middle of it and immerse myself in the middle of it and get in a canoe and paddle to the Mediterranean if I had to, be in New York when he arrived on [July 6] and greet him at the airport." He continued, "I wasn't there in the middle of the negotiation, and that's my job. It's not going to be the same without him. We will forge ahead."

Hey, gotta learn to live with regrets. As for the last third of Miami's former Big 3, Chris Bosh returning to play for the Heat next season is still yet to be determined. Riley shed light on that pending issue concerning Bosh, who was also at odds with the team who disallowed him to play due to his recurring blood clot health condition that resurfaced last season.

"It's always fluid, and it has been since there was a diagnosis for our decision of him not to play for the rest of the season. What the standard of care is that situation is what drove us to make that decision. It's a positive situation right now with Chris and his doctors. Our doctors are constantly, I think constantly so more now than ever, communicating. I know what Chris wants, and I know he wants to play. And I know we'd be open to that. But this is still a very fluid situation. There's no, on this day today, which day is this? The 15th or the 16th? There is no answer. I wish I could give you one."

Yoko Ono has been long theorized to have broken up The Beatles. After seeing LeBron go back home to Cleveland in the summer 2014, and D-Wade leaving, plus Bosh being benched with no said date to take the floor again, Riley is looking like the reason the Heat are breaking up right now. Not a good look.

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