Pat Riley admits all the talk about Heat Culture makes 'people want to throw up'

The Miami Heat are renowned for their so-called “Heat Culture,” a way of doing things with consistency that sets them apart from other NBA teams.

But team president Pat Riley, appearing on “The Why with Dwyane Wade” a co-production of iHeartPodcasts and Wade’s 59th & Prairie Entertainment, thinks that people are sick of hearing about “Heat Culture:”

“There's so much written about culture today, and a lot of it in reference to the Heat, that a lot of people want to throw up. They're tired of hearing about it. It's almost like, are they the only ones that have a culture? No. Everybody has a culture, and a culture is simply a shared vision of what it is you want to do to get to where it is you want to go. And so it's a shared vision of what you have to do to get there. And so it's up to the coach to create the philosophy. It's not just the acronyms of hardest working, best condition, most professional, unselfish, toughest, nastiest, meanest, disliked team in the league, whatever that moniker is. You can take each one of those acronyms and you can talk about that for 30 minutes, hard work, conditioning, and what it takes and all that stuff. And so once you set the tone about what your philosophy is going to be, and you have to then paint the picture”

In the appearance, Riley also reminisced on trading Shaquille O'Neal, saying that he “hated” making the move. All in all, the Heat president's gamble paid off, as Miami won the 2006 NBA Finals after the trade.

Now in 2024, the Heat look to build upon their past success, led by Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, and new acquisition Terry Rozier.