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Dragic: Meeting Pat Riley Gave Me Goose Bumps

WQAM

Goran Dragic, the latest star acquired by the Miami Heat, sat down with Bleacher Report to give a first-person account of how he helped push a trade to South Florida, what it was like when he got here and whether his future is in Miami. Snippets of his words are in italics.

The Heat guard said his "No. 1 wish was to go to Miami" and later found out Riley tried to get him a few years ago when he was with the Rockets.

Miami offered everything—a great market, great players, their championship mentality. They always want to do well, and I think that it was a good fit for me.

While getting settled with his new employer, he had an "unbelievable" meeting with Heat President Pat Riley in his office.

I got goose bumps when he was talking about everything that we try to do in this organization to win a championship, and that we're one step closer with me. That meant a lot. He even gave me a hard plastic card—about the size of a business card—that had a picture of the Larry O'Brien trophy and said on the other side, "We are family." I put it in my wallet right away. Pat said, "This is what it's all about. You can have it with you all the time."

Dragic has a player-option for $7.5 million next season but is expected to decline that and become an unrestricted free agent, as his value will be much higher on the open market.

Whether he remains a fixture in the Heat's backcourt with Dwyane Wade remains to be seen.

I'm going to stay in the hotel until the end of the season, and then we're going to see how the team is going to develop. I just want to be focused on trying to help the team as much as possible get to the playoffs. But at the end of the season, of course I'm going to think about that option of staying. I'm really hoping to stay in Miami because I really like it, but you never know. I'm a free agent, so I'm going to explore my options.

The good news for Miami is they can offer Dragic a five-year deal of up to $100 million, while other teams can only offer a four-year deal worth $80 million. He could prefer to sign a shorter deal, however, with the NBA salary cap expecting to swell before the 2016-17 season with the effects of the new TV deal.

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