LeBron James leaving the Heat came as a surprise to many. He had made four finals in a row, won two championships in Miami and had a great personal relationship with Dwyane Wade. He could make more money re-signing and with everyone opting out and restructuring their contracts, the team could have brought in some reinforcements. The situation might not have been ideal since the roster lacked youth, but few teams had a better pitch.

Months after James left the Heat to go back to Cleveland, Pat Riley still thinks that was the case and isn't over losing LeBron, if his comments in an exclusive interview with Bleacher Reports' Ethan Skolnick are any indication. The interview is great and Riley touches on a lot of different subjects, from his playing career to where he hopes the Heat will go from here.

But his comments regarding James' exit are a true glimpse of what's going on behind the cool facade:

"Generational teams stay together. The players stay together. They know what they have. They see what they've won. They see that there's going to be a little bit of an adjustment here, and they don't want to leave that. You may never get it again. "That was almost shocking to me that the players would allow that to happen. And I'm not just saying LeBron. I mean, the players, themselves, would allow them to get to a state where a guy would want to go home or whatever it is. "So maybe I'm dealing with a contemporary attitude today of, 'Well, I got four years here, and I think I'll go up there for whatever reason I went.' You know, the whole 'home' thing, I understand that. But what he had here, and what he had developed here, and what he could have developed over the next five or six years here, with the same team, could have been historic."

Riley added that his former stars with the Lakers -- Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy -- would have never considered leaving as long as they had each other.

Losing James was a huge blow to the Heat franchise. Riley mentions he was hoping Luol Deng and Josh McRoberts would keep Miami competing for the East crown, but that hasn't been the case. Even after finding Hassan Whiteside and trading for Goran Dragic, they look like first-round fodder at best now that Chris Bosh is out for the season. So it's understandable he feels nostalgic about the LeBron era and reflective about what could have been done differently.

The first thing that comes to mind is Riley could have done a better job surrounding LeBron with young talent. The Heat were in win-now mode, which led them to bring in reliable veterans. But that philosophy deprived the team from emerging players who could replace the older guys as they faded. Micky Arison's decision to use the amnesty provision on Mike Miller, a close friend of James', to reduce the team's luxury-tax bill surely didn't help matters.

In the end, it's possible there was nothing the Heat could do. If LeBron wanted to return home, he would have done it regardless of what the Miami had to offer. While the rest of us get to accept that and move on, Riley understandably is having trouble.

★★★

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