Pat Riley: Erik Spoelstra Is Safe

Riles publicly backed his embattled coach, saying this is just a rough stretch for the Miami Heat and their coach, and that things will be fine. The Star-Ledger reports: “No, the subject of crying didn’t come up, because that subject is — how should we phrase this — stupid. So what’s wrong with your guys?: ‘Hey, look, tough times are good times for me. But don’t make me go there today. You know what’s going to happen if I do that? In New York, if I didn’t create a crisis with the Knicks, the crisis was created for us. In Miami, it needs me to help it along just by opening my mouth.’ Did you look online this morning? There was yet another headline about Erik Spoelstra’s job security. ‘Write it off. Write it off. It’s the media being neurotic. It’s their need to make a story, create a story, and make that story come true. And that ain’t going to happen. Write it off. We’re just in a tough time right now, we’ll get through it.’ It’s not so much a tough time as it is remembering to play basketball in the last minute of these close games, instead of that iso garbage you keep resorting to? Anyone can defend that. ‘I know they’ll get it. But everyone has to overreact to things right now. We’re going through some tough times and we will get through it. It’s like anything else, like I always say, the playoffs will tell. Everything else now is just rhetoric. And we’re getting ready for that time. And I don’t really care what position we play from.'”