The commemoration came across a variety of Miami Heat social-media platforms, that Wednesday marked 20 years since Pat Riley was named Heat coach and team president.
It was with considerably less fanfare (actually no fanfare) that a similar 20-year anniversary was reached six months earlier, with Micky Arison having taken over on February 13, 1995 as the team’s managing general partner.
If not for the first of the franchise’s seismic moves, it is unlikely that Wednesday’s commemoration would have resounded. Or even been reached.
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That made it only right that Arison and Riley shared a toast Wednesday, raising glasses in Portofino, Italy, just as they have elevated a franchise these past two decades.
It also is what has had the Heat standing alone among South Florida’s major sports franchises these past 20 years. This has not been Wayne Huizenga and then Steve Ross attempting to find stability in the Dolphins’ front office. It has not been Marlins owner Jeffery Loria operating his franchise as if on a whim. It has not been the Florida Panthers rotating through ownership and management as if changing lines on the fly.
The question is not where the Heat would have been without Riley. And it is not where it would have been without Arison. It is where it would have been without Riley-Arison.
Read the full story at SMH, by Ira Winderman
Micky Arison
