"I packed one suit, one shirt, and one tie," Riley said of his sartorial stinginess.

Well, someone followed up, what if there's a Game 7?

Riley tut-tutted the suggestion.

"I'm not thinking about that," Riley said.

Nope, this suit was about to see it's last game. Riley knew Tuesday had to be the night to wreck the only nice clothes he had brought to Dallas.

Pat Riley now gets to add ring No. 7 to his collection. Victor Baldizon /NBAE/Getty Images

Then, there Riley stood, after the Heat clinched the 2006 NBA Championship with a 95-92 win over the Dallas Mavericks, surrounded by reporters in the hallway of the American Airlines Center, his hair slicked back more by Moët and Chandon than gel, his suit soaked, his smile wide.

Throughout the Finals, Riley oozed championship cool, championship cache and most important to the Heat players, championship confidence. And while not as tangible and measurable as Dwyane Wade's 36.4 points per game and Finals MVP performance, Riley's poise played a big part in the Heat's first title.

"He had a lot to do with it," Wade said. "He helped shape me into the player I am today.

"Even when I messed up, I would look over to the bench, and he'd say, 'So what?'"

With a player like Wade on his side, such nonchalance may seem easy to pull off. But then again, the Heat's success -- or their ultimate failure -- rested on Riley's shoulders. He was the one who blew up a roster that fell one game short of the 2005 Finals. On Dec. 16, when the Heat were 13-10, he was the one who took over the coaching duties. After losing the first two in Dallas, he was the one who turned the team over to Wade.

For Riley, the moves paid off with ring No. 5 as a head coach, and his seventh overall.

"He's the leader," said Heat managing partner Micky Arison, who, like one of his newly christened Carnival Cruise ships, was drenched in champagne. "He put the team together. He was the one with the pressure on him."

For Alonzo Mourning, Riley proved more than a capable championship steward.

"He was so important, so important," Zo said as he held the Larry O'Brien Trophy. "He was the captain of the ship. His experience, his confidence just rubbed off on all of us.

"You couldn't help but soak all of that in."

In the "Greed is Good" 1980s, Riley, in his Armani suits and four titles, seemed an unapproachable, almost mythic, figure. This season, Riley, who once got paid thousands as a motivational speaker in the offseason, didn't hesitate to recalibrate his inspirational messages for the confessional, reality TV world of today.

For instance, Riley placed a bowl in the middle of the locker room, covered it with a black blanket and forbade anyone beside Heat employees to look into it. He said the contents would only be revealed if the Heat won a title.

Riley looks like he may need a new suit. Victor Baldizon /NBAE/Getty Images

On Tuesday, moments after the win and before the press entered the locker room, the Heat took off the tarp and started to spray champagne and the bowl's contents about the locker room.

When the media entered, there were thousands of cards, some with the players' names on one side and pictures of their families and spouses on the other side. Some read, "15 Strong" the Heat's motto of brotherhood. All were meant to symbolize what was important -- each other.

Riley, however, put something else entirely into that bowl: pieces of himself.

"He put his six title rings in there," said rookie Wayne Simien, who kindly continued a story Gary Payton had to stop telling as he was yet again doused with champagne.

"He put the rosary from his mother's funeral and some of his children's possessions in there. He was trying to tell us, ask us what we would we give up to win the title. What would we give up for each other?"

Did he ask you guys to put anything into it?

"We didn't put anything into it," Simien said.

But what the Heat got out of it, well, that's what is important.

"I said it, I mean it, I'd give up six of them for this one," Riley said. "I just would have. I would have traded them all in for this one. Not that it's not disrespectful to any of them that I won.

"But after 18 years, and chasing, you know, you keep chasing it, you keep chasing it, you get tired. So this gives me a sense of absolute freedom from having to chase it, desperately chase it. So it's very special."