"About 5:30, I got the call from [Dr.] Harlan [Selesnick], what Chris had. Even before the trade call, I knew, I didn't tell anybody, except I told Nick about it. And we were just stunned, absolutely just stunned. More concerned for his health, you know."
He recalled Udonis Haslem recovering from blood clots in his lungs four years earlier.
"So it gave me hope, and I think it gives Chris hope, that this is just healing, the right medication, rest, whatever he needs just to dissolve that, and get him healthy," Riley said. "But it was just another blow. It was a big blow to the franchise and to the fans of hope."
After the organization had, in his opinion, pulled itself "up by the bootstraps."
"And then you have to wait," he said. "So put it all in one little box; it was like a wasted year...you don't have that many years, so you don't want to waste any of them."