Pat Riley is the actual man behind Cookie Monster’s costume.
Dwyane Wade instructed a wild story on the “Underground Lounge” podcast about former Warmth teammate LeBron James throwing a match over Pat Riley taking away his cookies on the workforce airplane.
It was a second that gave Wade pause about James’ future in Miami.
“This was the first moment that I had an inkling that LeBron may not be back,” Wade stated. “One factor you don’t do is f–okay with LeBron’s cookies. That is severe. Like, he loves chocolate chip cookies. Chocolate chip cookies and ice cream, he loves.
“So when he gets on the plane, LeBron walks on the plane with two bags of food. One bag is all cookies, and the [other] bag is what his chef has prepared for him to eat because he eats a certain way. He don’t eat what’s on the plane… So we get on the plane, and we play cards at the front of the plane, and at some point, LeBron’s gonna be like, ‘Hey, bring me those cookies.’ And one day, he said, ‘Hey, where are my cookies?’ And this one day, they had to come up and whisper in his ear and tell him that there were no more cookies on the plane.”
That’s when issues took a flip.
“That motherf–ker sat back away from the game. He pushed them cards back he sat there quietly, his head like this [nodding]. He didn’t play cards no more. It’s serious. It was too much micromanaging at that point,” Wade stated. “You’re talking about a team who is four Finals in a row. You don’t need to micromanage us. I felt that ‘Riles’ went a little too far with his micromanaging at points like that. He’s a grown man; you don’t take the cookies away from him.”
James famously introduced his intention to hitch the Warmth within the notorious “The Decision,” which aired on ESPN on July 8, 2010, declaring he was taking his “talents to South Beach” — a alternative met with a lot vitriol, particularly from Cavaliers followers.
The Warmth, with James, Wade and Chris Bosh, went to 4 consecutive NBA Finals from 2011-14, successful all of it in ’12 and ’13.
In 2014, James opted to return to Cleveland, a choice met with resistance from Riley, who stopped simply in need of invoking Cavaliers proprietor Dan Gilbert, who had beforehand known as the NBA star “Benedict Arnold” when he left the franchise years earlier than.
James went on to win one other title with Cleveland in 2016 and added a fourth with the Lakers in 2020, whereas the Warmth haven’t been capable of recover from the hump.
On the 2025 NBA commerce deadline, star ahead Jimmy Butler pressured a commerce out of Miami, and in a ultimate assembly with Butler, Riley reportedly was in tears after trying to persuade the six-time NBA All-Star to stick with the Warmth — although he did poke enjoyable at his tumultuous Warmth beef.
When selecting up a espresso at his Miami store, Butler made an instance of one in every of his workers.
“I gave you a compliment. That’s what bosses do,” he stated with a smile. “We build you up, we don’t break you down.”
Butler was then traded to the Warriors and appears rejuvenated, as Golden State has a 6-1 file because the commerce.
