Phil the Jokester

Pat Riley is President, and he's assembled a star-filled roster. And yet, the Miami Heat is struggling, and it's very likely that the blame game will commence soon.

Doesn't this remind you of something?

2006: Pat Riley, who was still President of the Miami Heat, assembled a group of wily veterans, like Gary Payton and Antoine Walker, to team with young star (at the time), Dwayne Wade and Shaquille O'Neal to make a run at a championship. Based on their roster, the Heat were the favorites. But their record under coach Stan Van Gundy didn't show that. And so midway into the season, Riley fired Van Gundy and took over as coach.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson recently went on a talk show and stated if the Miami Heat don't start winning, then the "Van Gundy situation" will happen all over again and current Miami coach Erik Spoelstra will be out of the job. Van Gundy quickly responded back saying that Jackson's comments were "inappropriate" and "ignorant."

And though I am a huge fan of Jackson's unique sense of humor and his sly comments at his players and TNT commentator, Craig Sager, Jackson certainly didn't think before speaking this time around. It's no secret that Van Gundy was probably crushed at Riley's decision, and the virtue of a great joker is to poke fun at an appropriate subject matter, and Van Gundy's firing definitely does not fit that mold. But we can't come down at Jackson too hard because he's a coach first and foremost. And a really good one at that.

- Leather Head