By Ira Winderman/Sun Sentinel

The commemoration came across a variety of Miami Heat social-media platforms, that Wednesday marked 20 years since Pat Riley was named Heat coach and team president.
It was with considerably less fanfare (actually no fanfare) that a similar 20-year anniversary was reached six months earlier, with Micky Arison having taken over on February 13, 1995 as the team’s managing general partner.
If not for the first of the franchise’s seismic moves, it is unlikely that Wednesday’s commemoration would have resounded. Or even been reached.
That made it only right that Arison and Riley shared a toast Wednesday, raising glasses in Portofino, Italy, just as they have elevated a franchise these past two decades.
It also is what has had the Heat standing alone among South Florida’s major sports franchises these past 20 years. This has not been Wayne Huizenga and then Steve Ross attempting to find stability in the Dolphins’ front office. It has not been Marlins owner Jeffery Loria operating his franchise as if on a whim. It has not been the Florida Panthers rotating through ownership and management as if changing lines on the fly.
The question is not where the Heat would have been without Riley. And it is not where it would have been without Arison. It is where it would have been without Riley-Arison. It is a bond that formed in 1995 and has endured since, South Florida sports stability not seen since Joe Robbie-Don Shula.
It is a lesson in the spoils of stability, each of the Heat’s three NBA championships no more Riley than Arison, no more Arison than Riley.
It’s not to say there haven’t been rough patches, disagreements, and then moments of understanding.
But there also has been resolve to work through the down cycles, an appreciation of Nick Arison’s ascension, and the annual summer rounds of Instagrams from the Mediterranean that would come off as almost incomprehensible between Marlin, Dolphin, Panther owners and their lead executives.
Yes, there was a time when Riley sought nothing more than a Bill Parcells-like retreat to the shadows after his initial coaching retirement, and when Arison ordered him out from behind that tinted glass in the mezzanine at AmericanAirlines Arena to again become the face of the franchise at courtside.
There was money Arison declined to spend on Mike Miller that Riley saw as essential for more than keeping around a hobbled 3-point specialist.
There was a time when Riley, during his initial Heat coaching stint, playfully reached into the pocket of another coach to show the cash flow he had attached himself to, before it was made clear that accounting also would be part of Riley’s equation.
For Arison, there is business. For Riley, there is winning. It is when each elevated their appreciation for the stance of the other that it coalesced into two decades of partnership so rare across the sporting spectrum.
The question often asked of Riley is when he plans to move on to a time when the scraggly white offseason beard can become a year-round fixture, amid less stressful pursuits than rebuilding yet again.
The question of Micky Arison is when Nick Arison emerges as the family’s face of the franchise, just as Micky ascended to lead his father’s cruise conglomerate.
The appreciation now is that when one occurs, the other likely is to come in lockstep.
And then there are moments like this past week, with Riley and Arison looking like they’re having too good a time to consider anything else.
Which makes one wonder whether Sept. 2025 will feature another Heat commemoration for Riley, whatever the social-media protocol becomes at that stage. And whether Arison will be there, still alongside, to provide the photographic proof of the NBA’s ultimate two-man game.