Pat Riley already regrets the departure of Dwyane Wade from the Miami Heat to the Chicago Bulls.
"What happened with Dwyane floored me," Riley said. "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."
Wade admitted that a "business" rift with Riley played a big role in his decision to sign with the Bulls.
Riley admitted that he was not as involved in the negotiation process as he needed to be in order to retain Wade.
"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 the 6th and greet him at the airport," Riley said. "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."
Riley believes Wade's decision was not motivated by money.
"That is where we both failed ... I more than he, because he's the asset, he's the star, he's the face of the franchise,'' Riley said. "I should have done everything that I could have verbally in trying to change his mindset to mine, a big picture, a better picture, or one that I thought would help him."