Riley Can Do Damage Control by Quitting

If there’s a person who damaged his reputation and diminished his legacy by coming back this season, it isn’t Michael Jordan. It’s Pat Riley.

He should have stepped away after the Charlotte Hornets destroyed his Miami Heat in the first round of the playoffs last season.

Instead, Riley returned to try to straighten the course, to repair his franchise and his reputation, wanting to avoid leaving on the bottom. He comes off as a gambler chasing his losses and only making them worse.

Some of his tightest allies are now critics, and the people whose failures led to Riley’s success are having to come to his defense.

This season everything about Riley is coming into question and is subject to review, even some of his famous Rileyisms.

He used to say there were only two states in the NBA, winning and misery. Now he’s learning about a third: abject despair.

Miami shares the worst record in the NBA with the Chicago Bulls, 2-13, but must occupy a lower spot because it provided one of Chicago’s two victories. The Heat slinks into Staples Center to play the Clippers tonight with an 11-game losing streak.

It’s just as hard to see Riley muted and sullen as it is to watch Jordan get his shot blocked. I’d rather remember Riley as the slickest, most quotable, fashion-forward coach in the league. I’d rather think of him with that aura.

The aura is diminished now. He needs to leave before it vanishes.

Has Riley the coach lost his ability to motivate his players? Or has Riley the team president failed by putting together an expensive, aging roster?

He faces more questions than he ever has in his career, and his answers are getting less definitive.

Last week, Riley told the Chicago Tribune that “I do see the end coming....Maybe it’s getting to that time here. But I’m going to let it run its course.”

He talked about “a new beginning,” by dropping either the president or the coach from his title or staying on only as a consultant. Friday he said: “I have nothing but work right now. I never intended on anything impending.”

Monday he told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “I intend, as of today, to be back. But this is very difficult.”

Jordan has several built-in excuses for his drop-off. He’s older, rusty and surrounded by weaker teammates. It has done nothing to take away from the six championships he won in Chicago.

The more Riley loses in Miami, the less responsible he appears for the four championships he won while coaching Magic, Kareem, Worthy and the Lakers in the ‘80s.

He deserves some credit. If players won by themselves, Del Harris would still be coaching the Lakers. But Paul Westhead did win it all with the Lakers in 1980, and that was probably the weakest roster of their dynasty years.

Riley came close to winning another championship in New York, but his Knicks kept running into Jordan’s Bulls, then lost to Houston in Game 7 of the NBA Finals during Jordan’s first retirement. In retrospect, Riley might have coached too well for his own good in New York, giving him a hard-to-maintain reputation. His Knicks weren’t that talented.

Riley’s motivational tactics were legendary. He picked up coach-of-the-year awards in L.A., New York and Miami. There were times when I would have picked him if I needed my team to win one game.

In Miami the flaw in Riley’s methods became evident. He became famous for squeezing everything out of a team no matter what its obstacles during the regular season, but leaving nothing in the tank for the playoffs.

The last 10 seasons of the NBA have thoroughly validated Phil Jackson’s style and left Riley’s open to questioning. They used to be great rivals. Now it isn’t close.

With eight championship rings, Jackson has doubled Riley’s coaching haul. If the Lakers win the championship this season and the Heat doesn’t win a postseason game (or even make the playoffs), Jackson will have 156 playoff victories--one more than Riley’s record. And the Lakers’ 15-1 romp last spring boosted Jackson’s record all-time winning percentage to .738. Riley, meanwhile, dropped to eighth on the list, at .608.

Here’s Riley’s recent postseason history: three first-round losses in the last four years. He has made one trip to the conference finals with Miami, and that resulted in winning only one game.

Riley’s current team has been weakened by injuries to Brian Grant and Kendall Gill, and center Alonzo Mourning’s kidney ailment has kept the heart and soul of his team from playing at his old level--when he can play at all.

But former Heat guard Tim Hardaway said that Riley “doesn’t let the players be themselves.” And “now a lot of people have heard things, and guys don’t want to play there.”

Anthony Mason, who played for Riley in New York and Miami, chimed in too.

Who should come to Riley’s defense the other day but Alvin Gentry. Gentry was lamenting his team’s practice habits when he said Riley should be praised for his infamous demanding practices.

“That’s the biggest joke in the world to me, that the guy’s a bad coach,” Gentry said.

He said that Riley was great at creating environments where games are the most enjoyable part of the players’ jobs--as they should be.

“Everybody’s kind of down on Pat Riley right now,” Gentry said. “I would love to be Pat Riley.”

Would you? As strange as it might seem, at the moment it might be better to be Gentry.

That’s how far things have come. Riley replaced Gentry as the Heat coach in 1995 and it was as if he granted the former expansion franchise instant legitimacy. He upgraded everything about the Heat, from its video equipment to hotel lodging.

Now Gentry coaches a young team loaded with talent. His biggest challenge is finding enough minutes for all of the deserving players.

Riley is looking at a roster filled with aging, ailing players and he has minimum flexibility thanks to a payroll that’s way over the salary cap.

And Gentry’s team is favored tonight.

Riley has fallen below the Clippers. Isn’t that the cue that it’s time to leave?

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Pat Down

Pat Riley’s Miami Heat has a winning percentage of .133 this season, which pales in comparison to Riley’s worst records in a full season as coach. A look at his five worst seasons:

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Season Team W-L Pct. 1995-96 Miami 42-40 .512 2000-01 Miami 50-32 .610 1991-92 New York 51-31 .622 1999-00 Miami 52-30 .634 1983-84 Lakers 54-28 .659

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Note: In Riley’s 19 seasons as coach, his team has never failed to make the playoffs. *

J.A. Adande can be reached at: ja.adande@latimes.com