Bringing this team to a championship was one of the great coaching feats in basketball, and indeed, in all of sports. It was as dramatic an accomplishment as his major rival, Phil Jackson, pulled off in his first year with the Lakers in 1999-2000, when the Zen Master installed the triangle and then kept Shaq and Kobe Bryant from beating each other over the head with it en route to a title.

Walker, Payton and Williams came to the Heat last summer after mixed reviews elsewhere. Walker was known as a serial scorer who might not fit into a society where the basketball needed to be shared. Payton had a reputation for being brash and incorrigible, not to mention past his prime. Williams was perceived as unruly and undisciplined.

But Riley herded them together, earned their respect, and got them to play a compartmentalized game. Wade would be the leader, Shaq the second option, and everyone else would do their part.

Riverboat Pat took a chance, both in assembling this group and in stepping in to coach it. The jackpot was four straight victories over the younger, more athletic Mavericks, whose rookie coach, Avery Johnson, was eventually outmaneuvered by a master.

There were other factors that brought Riley his latest ring. Simply put, his No. 1 star shined as the pressure grew and the Mavericks’ star faded. Wade had 36 points in Game 6 and was ice down the stretch. Dirk Nowitzki finished that game with 29 points, but only two in the fourth quarter, both on free throws.

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Jason Terry, the man Mark Cuban crowed about after he let Steve Nash move on to Phoenix, shot just 7 of 25 in Game 6 and missed a wide-open 3-point look that would have tied the game in the finals seconds.

But to get to Game 6, Riley had to convince his team after it dropped the first two games of the series in Dallas that it could still prevail. He force-fed positive thinking to his players, and that led to a stirring comeback in Game 3, a walloping of the Mavs in Game 4 and a taut thriller in Game 5.

The Heat’s confidence grew with each Finals outing. The Mavericks’ fragile psyche slowly cracked and ultimately came apart.

When fans look back at the 2006 NBA Finals, they’ll likely remember it for Dwyane Wade. But the man who drafted Wade, traded for Shaq and recruited others to help made that memory and this championship possible.

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