In 2006, Pat Riley finally coached a non-Los Angeles Lakers team to a title by steering the Miami Heat to the top of the league. The championship run was doubly sweet because they overcame a 2-0 deficit to the Dallas Mavericks in the Finals.
The three-time Coach of the Year appeared to have pulled out all the stops to ensure his players basked in their success. According to Gary Payton , Riley even rented an entire boutique hotel for them and their families.
"Pat Riley, he took us all, he rented out the hotel," Payton said . "He got us one of those boutique hotels. They had ice sculptures, everything. It was live. All of our families were there. All of our wives and kids were there. The next day, they let all our kids and wives go back on the plane with us."
Treating the families right
The way Riley treated the family members of his Miami wards after the Finals contrasted with how the Mavs pulled their players away from their own kin during the series.
Dallas looked like it was on its way to winning the 2006 championship comfortably after defeating the Heat by an average margin of 12.0 points per game in the first two meetings. However, Dwyane Wade and company tied the series after a 98-74 victory in Game 4.
Following that contest, then-Mavs coach Avery Johnson lost his cool , fuming at his squad and pulling the players from the Marriott Hotel because he thought their being with their families in South Beach was too distracting. Jason Terry even acknowledged that some of his teammates had more than five family members at the team hotel.
To prepare the squad for a crucial Game 5 on the road (the Finals format then was still 2-3-2), Johnson relocated the Mavs to Fort Lauderdale. It almost worked because Dallas nearly stole the fifth contest, losing 101-100 in overtime.
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Taking care of business
Up 3-2, it was the Heat's turn to pull off a road win. Behind Wade's masterful performance, they took the 95-92 victory to break the Mavs' hearts and bring the championship trophy to Miami for the first time.
Of course, it was party time after that. Payton's unique hotel experience was just one of the stops in their lengthy celebration. According to Shaquille O'Neal, the team partied in Miami for "a month straight."
After a grueling playoff run, they certainly deserved it. However, that particular Heat group wouldn't get the chance to paint the town red again because it bowed out of the first round of the playoffs the following year and continued to struggle until the arrival of the Big 3 in 2010.
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