What Heat President Pat Riley says vs. what he means

Heat President Pat Riley had some interesting things to say Tuesday in a long Q&A session with the media, apparently his first since Dallas made everyone so happy. It can be tough to dissect what someone really means vs. what they say, but we're going to try with some of Riley's quotes and paraphrases:

"I can say this, we will be a multiple championship-contending team. This was a great year. It was a disappointing ending."

Riley meant: This was a disappointing year.

Erik Spoelstra will return for his fourth season as coach, which is believed to be the final year on his contract. But Riley said there have been no discussions about a long-term extension for Spoelstra. Riley, who recently has worked under a "year to year" agreement with owner Micky Arison, said he would continue to guide the Heat's basketball operations under a similar arrangement. Asked specifically if he felt an urge to coach again, Riley shot down the notion. "No, I'm not going to," Riley said of coaching. "It doesn't mean that I don't have the fire. But we've got a great young coach here, and I want to support him. And hopefully, he can grow like I did. We'll bring Erik back, definitely."

Riley meant: Are you kidding? We have a young guy who got his lunch handed to him in the finals. I'll give him 30 games in 2011-12, but at the first sign of cracking, I'm stepping in. Why else would we let him go into his final year without an extension?

In terms of [LeBron] James' drop-off in production and impact in the Finals, Riley said he met with him after the series and encouraged the two-time league MVP to take "a hard look at the film" to examine his performance. "You don't have an easy answer for that right now," Riley said. "It's wrong to lay it all on him."

Riley meant: I'm going to make LeBron a person mix-DVD of his fourth-quarter turtle-esque play. Then I'm going to sit there and watch it with him. About halfway through, Michael Jordan is going to magically appear through a doorway. He will spend the rest of the time alternating between laughter and calling LeBron disparaging names. Whether I lose LeBron forever or toughen him up, I don't care.

"The greatest thing in the history of South Florida sports was those three guys coming together," Riley said before stopping to make an exception for the Miami Dolphins' undefeated Super Bowl season in 1972. "Did we make mistakes along the way? Yes. Would they (Bosh, James and Wade) like to take back some of the words? Yes." But Riley said the team doesn't look back with many regrets. And he also said he never considered trading any of the Heat's Big Three during their rough start. "I know what everybody expected here, but it didn't happen," Riley said of falling short of the title. "We are good enough. We have enough. We will do all the things we need to do to get better."

Riley meant: Sorry I forgot about a team that actually won something. When you presume to win something, it's sometimes hard to remember you didn't really win. I gave them everything they needed to win. I can't understand why they didn't win. Next year, they had better win.