For a third straight year, Miami Heat team president Pat Riley received zero votes for the NBA’s Executive of the Year Award.
The honor went to Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti, whose team won 68 games and earned the No 1 seed in the Western Conference.
Riley last received votes in 2021-2022 when he tied for fourth place with the Phoenix Suns’ James Jones, who played with the Heat for six seasons. That was the season the Heat acquired Kyle Lowry, PJ Tucker, Caleb Martin and Markieff Morris. Previously, he finished third place in 2019-2020, when they acquired Butler. Most notably, he won the award in 2010-2011, of course the season when they acquired LeBron James and Chris Bosh while re-signing Dwyane Wade.
It isn’t too hard to see a trend there.
Riley and the Heat’s front office have been recognized after making what were considered to be franchise-altering acquisitions. Despite the huge unexpected success in the Butler era in Miami, fans had been clamoring for another star to go alongside Butler (and Bam Adebayo) for years.
In a way, the Heat’s inability to close a deal on another co-star indirectly led to Butler’s departure. It would have been much easier to go all in by giving Butler an extension.
