Former Heat guard Dion Waiters opens up about incident on team flight, Pat Riley and depression

Former Heat player Dion Waiters says he has no ill feelings toward Pat Riley

Former Miami Heat guard Dion Waiters finally broke his silence on the incident that played the largest role in the team banishing him to the bench and ultimately being traded.

Waiters spoke at length in a story in the Players' Tribune about when he required medical assistance after passing out on a team flight in November because of an overdose of an edible marijuana gummy. It was one of the multiple suspensions Waiters received before he was traded in February. He is now with the Los Angeles Lakers.

"It’s on me," Waiters wrote. "I own that. It was idiotic on my behalf — point-blank, period. What’s crazy is, my whole life I been a leader. I’m not a follower. Pat knows me. He knows I don’t do drugs. But sometimes when you’re going through dark times, you can fall trap to things you’d never do in your right mind."

Waiters shot down reports that he had a seizure on the team flight.

"Ask the doctors," Waiters wrote. "Ask my Heat teammates. They can speak on it. For that b.s. to come out, it ain’t right. I made a mistake, but for someone to leak that, and for my family to hear it? Shit. It ain’t right."

Waiters, who played in Miami from 2016-20, also said he still has respect for Heat owner Micky Arison and team president Pat Riley.

"I still got love for Pat," Waiters wrote. "Let’s put that on the record. Still got love for Pat, still got all the respect in the world for Micky Arison. When it was good it was good, you know? But even before this season, we knew it was over."

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