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Pat Riley has decided to take a nice mid-season leave of absence to have himself some surgery. This isn't life threatening stuff he's having repaired here, according to Riles himself he's had this condition for a while:

"I've got floating chips. I've got three or four things that have been floating in there for years. If I get it done, it'll be a day. There's just going to scope it and flush it out.

I had an MRI the other day. It showed all these loose parts in there. Lately it's been locking up and staying there."

Curious timing, don't you think? With his team reeling and not even currently in the playoff picture in the East, don't you think they could use his leadership now more than ever? Apparently Riley doesn't think so, and feels this is a fine opportunity to take care of some personal issues.

I can't imagine where Riley could have gotten the idea that it's ok to take time off during the regular season. I mean where could he possibly have seen someone at the top of their profession do something like this, with no consideration of how it would affect others in their organization?

Alright, enough with the thinly veiled references. Shaq has been pulling this crap for years, and now with the Heat off to a 13-17 start, Shaq still out, and Dwyane Wade being broken from trying to carry the team by himself, Riley has had enough. He's basically going to let someone else deal with this mess until probably the last quarter of the season. At that time, he'll retake the reigns and attempt to make one last run in the playoffs with a (presumably) healthy Shaq and Wade.

I fully expected this from Shaq and even D. Wade to some extent, and predicted as much before the season began. The last thing I expected was for their coach to follow suit. I guess based on the way that Riley stole the job from Stan Van Gundy after he was one game shy of the NBA Finals though, I should have seen it coming.