Jeff Van Gundy doesn't coach the New York Knicks anymore. Just up and quit a couple of weeks ago. This gritty little basketball lifer, the same coach who once wrapped himself around Alonzo Mourning's ankle like a crazed terrier in order to break up a Madison Square Garden fight, just up and quit.

You can only imagine how Pat Riley reacted to the news. He and Van Gundy are so similar in their dogged pursuit of an NBA championship ring, so utterly unfamiliar with the concept of surrender, that Riley must have felt that his own mirror had cracked. What's more, Van Gundy's brother, Stan, works for Riley as the Miami Heat's assistant head coach.

"I asked Stan why didn't Jeff call me up before he did that," Riley said. "He said he didn't want to. He said, `Jeff knew you would talk him out of it.' "

The question comes now whether Riley, the master motivator, is finding it necessary to talk himself off the same scary ledge. Wednesday afternoon, following a practice session that was cruel but no more so than Tuesday's 39-point home loss to Utah, he used the word "mind-boggling" to describe his team's horrendous play.

Here is a mind that doesn't boggle easily. A man who never has directed a losing NBA team. A coach who never has missed the playoffs, not once in a 19-year career.

"There isn't one guy here that I feel like I've lost, because a coach knows that," said Riley, who spoke quietly to a small group of reporters at AmericanAirlines Arena. "Playing better, executing, well, that's a different story. But from the other side, where guys quit, there's none of that."

This is what it comes to when a team is 5-18, when Riley can't even get the Heat up to the standard of the Los Angeles Clippers, much less his great L.A. Lakers teams of old. Get to this point and it becomes an encouragement that all the millionaire players on your roster are still coming to work, and work hard, rather than faking an injury or telling the team owner that they either want out or they want a new coach.

Micky Arison, cruise ship king, is the owner of the Heat. If ever he got tired of Riley, it would be more than firing a head coach, but a team president and personnel director, too. Arison gave it all to Pat in a comprehensive 10-year contract, everything Riley wanted but couldn't get as coach of the Knicks. Three seasons remain on that contract, plus what's left of this one. Zo won't be with the team that long, gallant though his fight against kidney disease may be. The way this roster changes over, all on Riley's command, it is difficult to imagine that any current Miami player will be.

So Wednesday the Heat danced the inevitable dance of all Riley teams. They endured a killer practice session, proving to themselves that there's still some toughness in this group after scoring a paltry 56 points against the Jazz. They fought back, in other words, and even though it was amongst themselves there is something to say for that. Riley gets his victories where he can these days, and on Wednesday the victory was that every player survived what the coach called "a big-muscle practice" without collapse, without complaint, without mutiny.

Brian Grant called the workout "old-school" and declared his approval, saying it was great to be good and angry about something again. Mike James, just in from the CBA, said he was told by other players that this is the first time all season the Heat have really been pushed to the physical limit in a practice session. The kid was even bold enough to suggest "maybe that's what coach needs to get back to." The Heat need to recapture their reputation for never being outworked, he said.

"I've been in situations where they were trying to really get the coach out of there," said LaPhonso Ellis, a summer signee of Riley's who is playing on his fourth team in 10 NBA seasons. "The players really went AWOL on the court to get rid of the coach. We don't have that here. Hopefully a day like this can be a start for the guys really beginning to value the system."

Jimmy Johnson had a system, too, but he gave up on it in Miami after four seasons. A 62-7 playoff loss convinced him it was time to go. Riley, far more stubborn, will gut it out this season, even though the Heat could play .500 ball the rest of the way and still finish 35-47. Only then will he allow himself the luxury of looking at the big picture, the one that shows bad teams getting better with lottery picks and a coach who doesn't mind looking foolish. Only then, on some Mediterranean cruise, will he seriously gauge his own fitness to play that patient, long-suffering role.

Common sense says he can't do it, not and protect his pride. Here's a compromise. Step back from the sidelines next season. Spend more energy on a long-term personnel plan, not a right-now run that smacks sometimes of desperation. Then, when the Heat are ready to chase a championship again, Riley could return as coach and drive them like before.

Hey, administrators and coaches switch horses all the time in hockey. Why not the Heat?

One-quarter of a season played and already they're on ice.