Riley mistakes movie footage for actual game tape

MIAMI, FL — Legendary coach Pat Riley had a moment he would prefer to forget at practice Friday morning, when he mistakenly thought footage from the 1996 film Blue Chips was actual game film from the Miami Heat’s Thursday night contest with the New Jersey Nets.

Players realized something was amiss when Riley began criticizing the team for, “too much talking on the bench,” and kept referring to All-Star center Shaquille O’Neal as “Neon” – his character’s name in the movie. Additionally, Riley consistently referred to guard Smush Parker as “Butch” throughout the meeting. Butch McRae is another character in the film, portrayed by guard Anfernee ‘Penny’ Hardaway, who was - ironically - released by the Heat on December 12.

Assistant coach Bob McAdoo arrived at the American Airlines Arena early Friday morning and decided to take advantage of the DVD player in the locker room before anyone else arrived.

“My wife signed us up for the Netflix, and I had added a bunch of basketball films in our queue,” said McAdoo. “I saw Blue Chips had arrived last night when I got home after the game, but it was too late to watch it. So I just thought I’d bring it in here and enjoy it before anyone else showed up.”

McAdoo received a call on his cell phone and was unable to finish the film, and he subsequently forgot to remove it from the player. When the team meeting began, Coach Riley played the footage and immediately started dissecting plays and analyzing where things went wrong. The fact that the jerseys said “Western Dolphins” (the name of the team Nick Nolte coaches to success in the film) didn’t phase Riley, or tip him off to something being amiss.

“I just thought they were throwback jerseys or something,” said the seven-time NBA world champion. “When you’ve coached as many games as I have, all these ridiculous costumes start to run together. Who can remember what unis a team is supposed to wear on any given night?”

As to why actor Nick Nolte would appear on Heat game footage, Riley simply offered – “Our sport is very popular, and we have a lot of celebrities who attend our games.”

It’s going to be tough for this sport to sweep any nations, but it’s still pretty frickin’ cool!