National Basketball Association

Two Sides to a Title

Updated Oct. 27, 2020 3:31 p.m. ET

A few weeks after the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat did battle in the NBA Finals, their respective team presidents are having it out off the court – kinda.

In a Friday Zoom press conference, Miami Heat president Pat Riley shared a few thoughts regarding his team's run to the NBA Finals, and the championship series itself.

And while Riley gave credit to LeBron James and the Lakers franchise, he did wonder aloud what the Finals would have looked like with his team at full strength.

Said Riley:

“Yes, I’d like to see what it would have been like with everybody whole. But we’ll get that shot again. I’m just so proud of what our guys did ... The Lakers were great, they were a great team. They have the greatest player in the game today in LeBron and Anthony Davis ... So they beat us fair and square. They were the best team. But there’s always going to be an asterisk, that caveat. If we had Bam and Goran – Goran was our leading scorer in the playoffs – at 100 percent, it could have gone to seven games or whatever.”

Over the weekend, Riley set out to clarify his comments.

Take from that what you will, but Riley made his belief clear: if his squad was whole, the series would have gone differently.

Then, early this week, Rob Pelinka – the vice president of basketball operations and general manager for the Lakers – had his say on the matter via the Woj Pod:

“I think some have asked, ‘Will this championship have an asterisk on it?’ I like to say, ‘No, it has a gold star’ ... Just because you had to do so much more to get to the end, and I think it was a testament to our team and the players and staff coming together in that environment.”

Pelinka is referring to the fact that the NBA season was halted back in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was completed in the NBA bubble on the campus of Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida between July and October.

Regardless of whose side folks take, Riley might be onto something, considering the Heat pushed the series to six games despite starting point guard Goran Dragic missing four games with a torn plantar fascia in his left foot and All-Star forward Bam Adebayo missing two games due to a sprained neck.

Coming into the Finals, Dragic was leading the Heat in scoring, averaging 20.9 points through 15 games. Adebayo was puttiing up 18.5 points and 11.4 rebounds coming into the Finals.

Dragic was also playing more than 34 minutes per game entering the championship series, and Adebayo was playing over 36 minutes per game.

In the Finals, Dragic played a total of 33 minutes and scored 11 points in two games. Adebayo averaged 15.3 points and 6.3 rebounds in 33.5 minutes per game in four games.

Does Riley have a point?

Skip Bayless believes so, but he also pointed out that Riley might have a lingering disdain for LeBron James, who left Riley and Miami in free agency back in the summer of 2014.

"[Riley] lost his leading playoff scorer Goran Dragic in Game 1. He lost his heart-and-soul player Bam in Game 1, and he never was the same."

Shannon Sharpe landed on the opposite side of the argument, pointing out that fans and pundits don't put an asterisk on Golden State's 2015 NBA Finals win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, a series in which Cavs superstar point guard Kyrie Irving played just one game and star forward Kevin Love missed the entire series.

FOX Sports NBA analyst Chris Broussard sided with Sharpe, revisted other NBA Finals series marred by injury, including the 2019 Finals.

“Any talk of an asterisk, particularly because of injury, is absolute foolishness. So I guess Kawhi & Toronto’s 2019 title deserves an asterisk, too, because of Golden State’s injuries, and Golden State’s 2015 ring, because of Cleveland’s injuries, and Detroit’s first title in 1989 because of Magic Johnson’s hamstring injury. I could go on and on about injuries in the NBA Finals. They’re almost as common as foul calls.

"Stop it, Pat. You’re better than that.”

The debate as to whether the 2020 NBA championship was a diminshed one, a regular one, or an enhanced one, won't be settled anytime soon, but it will surely light up barber shops and internet forums for years to come.

But if the Lakers and Heat can once again return to the NBA Finals in 2021, with health and good fortune on their side, maybe we can get the answer to Riley's newfound what ifs.

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