LOS ANGELES (AP) — LeBron James and Pat Riley both sometimes wonder what might have been if their four-year partnership with the Miami Heat had lasted a whole lot longer.
After the Los Angeles Lakers unveiled a statue Sunday honoring Riley's landmark career as the head coach of the 1980s Showtime teams, James and the current Lakers took the court and lost 111-98 to the Boston Celtics.
Riley and James praised each other Sunday, and both NBA icons also openly speculated about the paths not taken after James' four-year Miami tenure, which ended more than a decade ago.
“I wish him nothing but the best, but I’m going to be selfish here and say I wish had him for another six or eight years,” Riley said. “Would have been great. But we’ll never know, will we?”
Riley was the Heat's president — the job he still holds — when James famously left the Cleveland Cavaliers for South Beach in 2010 to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. That superteam reached four NBA Finals and won two championships in their four outstanding years together, but James left to go back to Cleveland in 2014.
“I never said, ‘I’m going to go there for four years and decide to (leave),’” James said. “That’s just how the cards was played. But it’s human nature to look back and say, ‘Yeah, what could have been?’ That’s part of life. The four years that we had was great. Was able to pick up two chips. We lost two of them, unfortunately, but a lot of great memories. A lot of great time there. It would have been interesting to see what could have happened.”
When James left Miami, he cited his paramount desire to bring a championship to his native Northeast Ohio — a goal he accomplished in 2016 by beating the Golden State dynasty.
Riley has always said he understood James' decision. While many observers also thought Miami's salary cap situation at the time presented serious challenges to future title contention after the Heat lost to San Antonio in the 2014 NBA Finals, Riley clearly thinks those obstacles wouldn't have been a match for James' brilliance.
“I thought getting the Big Three — Dwyane, Chris Bosh and especially LeBron — that we had finally put together what I thought could become a dynasty, (and) it was," Riley said. “Four trips to the Finals in a row, two world championships, it was an incredible run. And as a coach and as somebody who really thought about how to build that particular team, I saw something that could have lasted eight to 10 years. But I understood.”
The 41-year-old James put additional perspective on his decision Sunday: He thought he was a lot closer than he actually was to the end of his career.
“I would have never gave myself ... another 12 years to be playing this game, either,” James said. "So that's another story.”
James, who was 29 when he left Miami, is currently playing his unprecedented 23rd NBA season. He played in his 1,600th career regular-season game Sunday, moving just 11 games behind Robert Parish for the NBA longevity record.
James said he has always got along well with Riley, who had moved into the front office full-time and ceded the Miami bench to Erik Spoelstra before James' arrival.
“That's one of the all-time greats to have ever been a part of this league, as a player, coach, executive, front-office executive, everything," James said of Riley. "Obviously what he did here for the Lakers organization in the ‘80s goes without saying, and rightfully so, him having a statue outside the building. I spent four years with him and I’ve got much respect for him, for his family and everything. It's pretty cool.”
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A statue of former Los Angeles Lakers coach Pat Riley is unveiled outside the Crypto.com Arena on Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Greg Beacham)
Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) is honored in the second half for reaching the 43,000th point of his career during an NBA basketball game against the Boston Celtics, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Katie Chin)
Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James smiles during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Boston Celtics, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Katie Chin)
MEKELE, Ethiopia (AP) — Gebreegziabher Berehe has stopped waiting for tourists to arrive as many worry about a return to war.
The tour guide in Ethiopia ’s northern region of Tigray says his bookings have dried up, ATMs in the city of Mekele are empty and he is considering leaving a country where he can no longer afford to live.
“If war arises again, I think the situation will be even more severe than before,” the 37-year-old Berehe said. “My colleagues and I are now facing serious economic and moral crises, even before hearing the sound of any gun.”
There is a tense calm in Mekele, the regional capital, but tensions have been rising again between local authorities and Ethiopia’s government in Addis Ababa, the federal capital.
Tigray has been bracing for the possibility of renewed conflict after the parties signed a peace deal in November 2022, ending fighting that killed thousands of people as Ethiopian government troops, backed by allied forces from neighboring Eritrea, fought Tigrayan forces.
Now, Tigray’s rulers accuse Ethiopian federal authorities of breaching that agreement with drone strikes. At the same time, Ethiopia’s government accuses Eritrea of pivoting to mobilize and fund armed groups in Tigray, with which it shares a border.
In the feared scenario, Eritrea would team up with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the group that governs Tigray, in armed hostilities against Ethiopian forces.
The conflict that ended in 2022 was brutal, with widespread allegations of sexual violence and the withholding of food as a weapon of war.
Many residents of Mekele are looking for opportunities to escape any new fighting while they can, recalling the communications blackout and travel restrictions that Ethiopia's government imposed on the region during the conflict.
Some observers see a possible war trigger in Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s forceful stance on efforts to regain Red Sea access for landlocked Ethiopia through Eritrea, which was lost when Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after decades of guerrilla warfare.
Abiy told lawmakers earlier this month that the Red Sea and Ethiopia “cannot remain separated forever.” Yemane Gebremeskel, the Eritrean government spokesperson, dismissed Abiy's ambition as “delusional malaise” in comments to The Associated Press.
Eritrea, fearing a military strike on its port of Assab, has responded by warming up to its former rivals, Tigray’s leaders, even as it denies any alliance. That has caused concern in Addis Ababa, where the Ethiopian government is calling up its reserve forces.
Abiy has tried to build a global image of Ethiopia as a rising power since he took office in 2018. But he has been set back by several conflicts over the years.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has called on all parties to exercise restraint, echoed by the European Union and the United Kingdom, which has warned its citizens against traveling to the region.
Ethiopian Airlines, the national carrier, on Jan. 29 canceled flights to Tigray after clashes broke out between federal troops and Tigrayan forces in Tselemti district, which is part of an area disputed by Tigray and the neighboring Amhara region. The airline resumed flights on Feb. 3.
The violence was followed by drone strikes that killed one person and injured another. Tigrayan authorities accused Ethiopian forces of carrying out the attack. Ethiopia's military didn't publicly respond to the allegation.
The events have affected travel to Tigray, whose ancient rock-hewn churches and dramatic highland landscapes make tourism a rare but vital source of hard currency and employment.
While Mekele business owners like Berehe worry about lost income, Tigray farmers like Johannes Tesfay worry.
Tesfay lives north of Mekele in Debretsion, where his family grows chili, potatoes and onions at the base of a mountain range that Eritrean troops used to cross into Ethiopia during the last conflict, trampling over farmland and destroying equipment.
Supply chain disruptions tied to the renewed tensions have left him gravely concerned.
“There’s no fuel for my irrigation pumps, there’s no fertilizer and there’s barely any transportation for buyers to bring the produce to market,” he said.
Asked what he would do if fighting returned to the region, Tesfay looked to the mountains and said, “What can we do? All we can do is pray. We need help from the global community to make some kind of reconciliation between all the forces.”
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Johannes Tesfay, a farmer, poses for a photo during an interview with The Associated Press in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, on Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Jody Ray)
A woman holds her child at a street market in Wukro in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Jody Ray)
Ethiopian women buy and sell goods at a street market in Mekelle in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Jody Ray)
Gebreegziabher Berehe, a tour operator, gestures during an interview with The Associated Press in Mekelle, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, on Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Jody Ray)
A bullet-riddled vehicle sits abandoned on the grounds of Wukro Lodge, once occupied by Eritrean troops, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, on Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Jody Ray)
