East Coast, West Coast, It’s in the Stars for Riley

Old Lakers never die, they just win titles somewhere else.

Pat Riley, the dreamer of the coaching fraternity, first imagined this moment with Shaquille O’Neal two years ago.

Of course, Riley’s original version still had O’Neal as a Laker, alongside Kobe Bryant, with Riley back on the sideline as their coach.

No, really. It was the spring of 2004, the end of an era. The Lakers had just been stunned by the Detroit Pistons in the NBA Finals. Owner Jerry Buss had just let Coach Phil Jackson know he wouldn’t be offered a new contract.

Riley, the Heat president but no longer the coach, flew to Los Angeles to meet with Buss. It was obvious Buss was thinking of rehiring Riley and Riley was open to it. No one knew anything more

“I don’t know if I would’ve taken the job,” he told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s Dave Hyde. “The only way would’ve been if there was a way to keep Shaq and Kobe together.”

Riley even asked Buss for their telephone numbers, hoping to persuade both to stay. However, Riley said they discussed it for only 20 minutes when Buss said, “Let’s have dinner.”

After that, it was purely social, both sides understanding it wouldn’t work.

Said Riley: “They’d already made up their mind. They didn’t want to keep them together.”

Riley got on his chartered jet and flew back to Miami, the first to have learned O’Neal was available and, ultimately, the one who landed O’Neal in a trade.

After that, everything fell into place, more or less.

The Heat fell in last spring’s Eastern Conference finals after leading, 3-2, when Dwyane Wade suffered a rib injury. Riley broke up the team with the controversial acquisitions of Antoine Walker and Jason Williams. Riley said he would help Coach Stan Van Gundy, leading to rampant speculation Van Gundy was a goner, which turned out to be true when he resigned in December.

Riley was pilloried for stabbing Van Gundy in the back. The Heat finished 12 games behind Detroit. The Chicago Bulls threatened to take Miami out in the opening round, splitting the first four games and leading Game 5 by nine points before succumbing. The Heat beat the New Jersey Nets and the Pistons but lost the first two Finals games and trailed by 13 points with 6:34 left in Game 3.

Then everything turned around.

The Mavericks came home trailing, 3-2, although it was easy to forget they were around with owner Mark Cuban taking over the news cycle, snarling at a referee after Game 5, glaring at Commissioner David Stern. Stern tried to let the furor die, rather than fine Cuban and make him even bigger, but decided he had no choice and hit him for another $250,000.

That made $450,000 this postseason and $1.7 million overall. By now the Finals was beginning to look like World Wrestling Entertainment Smackdown! with Cuban in the role of promoter Vince McMahon.

There was a surreal scene in the Mavericks dressing room before Game 6 when Stern wished Cuban luck, shaking his sweaty hand ... as Cuban chose not to climb down off his Stairmaster.

Cuban then did a news conference on the Stairmaster, saying, “People have been saying that ever since I bought the team, you’ll never get to the playoffs, you’re in the way, you’ll never get any visibility for the team ‘cause you’re out front.

” ... But here we are. If you said to me, ‘Mark, all that and if you hold home court for the last two games, you’ll win the championship, would you say yes?’ And I’d give the appropriate answer. I’d say, ‘Booyah. Hell, yes.’ ”

Unfortunately, they didn’t even hold home court for one game.

After making 10 of their first 16 shots, the Mavericks went 24 of 76. Once again, the team with the best player, by a large margin, made its advantage count.

The best player was, of course, Wade, the runaway Finals most valuable player who averaged 39.3 points in the last four games after finally getting over flu.

O’Neal, the MVP of all three Finals as a Laker, got his fourth title but at age 34, his role seemed to diminish nightly. He scored nine points Tuesday and averaged 13.7 in the series.

Of course, O’Neal said he had been “double and triple-teamed all series.” Nevertheless, he was gracious enough to say he had made his promise to bring Miami a title, “because of D-Wade.”

It was the same old story, the combination of O’Neal and a great perimeter player was devastating. In Miami, not Los Angeles, for one more season, at least.