Pat Riley Tells Danny Ainge to ‘Shut the F*** Up’

The Miami Heat and Boston Celtics rivalry just got more interesting. Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge criticized Miami Heat star LeBron James for his comments on officials after the Heat  watched their winning streak come to an end against the Chicago Bulls.

LeBron wasn’t too shocked but Ainge’s comments and blew it off by saying he wasn’t surprised “something like that would come from Boston.” But while LeBron was able to brush off the criticism, Miami Heat president Pat Riley responded to Ainge with a very powerful statement of his own.

Riley’s statement can be summed up in four letters — S.T.F.U. We could have a very public spat between two high ranking officials in the NBA after the shots that Riley fired back and I would love to see it.

Here are the comments from Ainge criticizing LeBron that started the beef between the two:

"“I think the referees got the calls right. I don’t think it was a hard foul. I think the one involving LeBron against [Carlos] Boozer, that was flagrant. I think the officials got it right.“I think that it’s almost embarrassing that LeBron would complain about officiating.”"

And then Riley delivered the big hay maker.

“Danny Ainge needs to shut the f— up and manage his own team,” Riley said through a statement released by the Heat. “He was the biggest whiner going when he was playing and I know that because I coached against him.”

First of all, hats off to Riley for his response. It may not be the most elegant way to defend your player, but the message was received loud and clear.

The second thing that stands out is that the Miami Heat approved a statement that featured the phrase “shut the f*** up.” That is simply incredible. It’s too bad that we won’t get to see Riley and Ainge go at it on the basketball court — or a boxing ring for that matter.

What do you think of the words exchanged by the two execs? Will this add fire to the Miami – Boston rivalry and will it make the game a must watch? Let us hear your thoughts in the comments section. This is one time when we want no one to “shut the f*** up.”