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I haven't yet found anyone who is 100% convinced that Pat Riley's announcement yesterday was motivated purely by health concerns.



Of course, we'll never know. Knee and hip surgery are great reasons not to be coaching for a little while. But almost everyone seems to smell some insincerity of one kind or another.



Ira Winderman talks about as fact that Riley's pressing knee injury was self-imposed. And he questions the deactivation of James Posey and Antoine Walker:

--Not so sure I'm buying the conditioning angles when it comes to Antoine Walker and James Posey.

-- Let's get this straight, just because each is one percent over their prescribed body fat they're held out at a time the teams needs them most?

-- And judging by appearances, it's difficult to believe Posey and Walker are in the same conditioning boat. Where exactly is Posey's excess fat?

-- If Riley does return, how will these actions impact the recruiting of future free agents: Come to the Heat and be suspended for one percent excess of body fat.

-- For a coach who talks about poise, how exactly does kicking a door and damaging a knee help Pat Riley or his team?

-- And if the knee wasn't hurt, wouldn't the hip have waited?

Jamal Mashburn expects the team president to be working the phones:

Wherever Riley's recovering, whether it's in a hospital room or home, he's eventually going to use the time to step back and look at the big picture of the team. I know from playing for him, he's a guy who wants to do things now. Sometimes, when you're too close to things, you miss the overall story. But now he might be less concerned about the right now, and in his president and GM role, he can look at the big picture.



This is his time to evaluate his talent and work on trades. That's much harder to do when you're coaching the team.

David Thorpe and Chad Ford both consider themselves a little cynical about this, pointing out in a podcast that that Riley has never liked coaching bad teams. Thorpe says he expected this last summer, and isnot surprised. Thorpe, for what it's worth, says he thinks it's likely both that the Heat will make the playoffs, and that Riley will return to coach.



Chris Broussard:

Let me say this, if Riley doesn't return, it will not look good. True or not, it will look like he simply can't stomach the losing, that he wants to coach only teams that are ready-made to reach the Finals.



We all know Riley began dropping hints about coaching again the summer after the Heat got within minutes of reaching the Finals in '05. Then, of course, few bought the explanation that Stan Van Gundy stepped down willingly because he wanted more time with his family.



And now that the hard times have returned, Riley takes another break. Again, I'm not belittling his health problems, but this will appear awfully fishy if he sits out the rest of the season.

Greg Cote:

Love the timing of this news, by the way, coming on the day when SoFla media sporties and fans are preoccupied with Nick Saban bolting. You might even suspect the Heat timed this so it would get as little notice as possible and discourage any speculation that Pat might quietly be segueing into retirement.

Basketbawful:

I can just imagine The Big Coffee Break having a meeting with Riley and saying, "Dude, just take 20 or 30 games off like I do. You'll come back refreshed and ready to dominate. Seriously."



I know he's a coaching legend and all that blah-diddy-blah. But at this point, Riley seems like he has a bad case of basketball-related Attention Deficit Disorder. He got tired of coaching a bad team, so he quit coaching. He got upset when the team didn't win a title in Shaq's first year, so he replaced pretty much everybody but Shaq and Wade (and yeah, I know it worked, but still...). Now the team is old and sucking, and suddenly he needs some time off to soak in Ben Gay. Funny how his physical condition wasn't an issue before the team started falling apart. I mean, his hip and knee weren't hurting him a few months ago when he was doing his victory dance...