Brian Windhorst trying to convince Pat Riley to record podcast series with Dan Le Batard

Everybody has a podcast, except for Miami Heat president Pat Riley. And ESPN’s Brian Windhorst is trying to change that.

There may be no one with more basketball stories to tell than Pat Riley, who is now in his seventh decade in the NBA and still a go-getter after acquiring Giannis Antetokounmpo this offseason. Sure, Riley could write another book or two. But if he really wants his stories to be heard, Windhorst believes the nine-time NBA champion should consider a podcast.

On an episode of his own podcast, The Hoop Collective, Windhorst said he pitched Riley on launching a podcast series last year.

“The written word, it will be there, but it won’t carry to the next generation,” Windhorst said he told Riley. “The next generation wants the audio word. I said, do it with Le Batard…I’m sure Le Batard has had to have suggested this. I said, ‘Pat, you’ve got to do podcasts.’ Record them and then just say they can’t be released until after you die, I don’t care. You’ve got to make a record of these stories.”

Riley has been great behind a microphone throughout his career. But writing often provides a bit of a safe space to be vulnerable, whereas recording audio can still make the person opening up more cautious or hesitant. The idea of releasing the podcast posthumously could ease some of that hesitancy. But the best way to get a person to be completely raw and unfiltered in front of a microphone is by having them speak with someone they trust.

Riley already recorded a more than two-hour-long episode of South Beach Sessions with Le Batard last year. During that episode, Le Batard also referred to Riley as a “life coach.” There is a clear, deep level of trust between the two, making Le Batard seem like the perfect candidate to help chronicle many of Riley’s told and untold stories in a podcast series.