Also in this issue:

• Up Front
  Letters: Out of the Humidor
• Good Life Guide
  Leica D-Lux
• Good Life Guide
  John Jaques Croquet Set
• Celebrities
  Return of the Terminator
• Celebrities
  From Cigars to the Big League
• More from this Issue

The Strife of Riley

Are Pat Riley's days of winning NBA titles long behind him? Or can his steadfast coaching strategies turn the Heat back into contenders?

Bruce Schoenfeld
From the Print Edition:
Arnold Schwarzenegger, July/Aug 03

Eventually, Riley might gain enough perspective to understand. He can't see it now. He looks ahead at the coming season knowing he'll do almost anything to avoid a repeat of the last two. He'll work even harder, if that's what it takes. He'll prepare more thoroughly, ratchet up the stakes even higher with his team. A new power forward, a new play, a longer practice.

What he won't do, intimates stress, is walk away. It would be easy to do exactly that at this point, with the understanding that the Heat job as it exists today requires the patience of a younger man, or perhaps a man without four championship rings. But Riley still wants to prove that he can win one more without three Hall of Famers in the locker room; with less overt talent, but a more evolved philosophy. In a sense, that would validate everything he has done since leaving Los Angeles. "I suspect he'll keep on doing it until he gets it right," says Mashburn. "Don't expect to see him go riding off into the sunset."

Outside AmericanAirlines Arena, the sun has set long ago. As Riley leaves his office for home after another night of frustration, he has to be wondering if he'll ever see it rise again.

Bruce Schoenfeld is a frequent contributor to Cigar Aficionado.

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