MIAMI _ And, yet, he didn't fully answer the question. Keep that in mind.
Not that Jim Berry didn't put it in front of him before any others could be asked of Miami Heat President Pat Riley this offseason.
"So, Pat, in terms of your strategy this offseason," Berry opened, "are you going after another whale? Are there enough whales out there to interest you?"
Riley followed with that now familiar brief laugh, the one not borne as much out of finding humor in a situation as a mechanism to gather his thoughts.
"You know," Riley responded at AmericanAirlines Arena, "I regret ever making that statement, because now that's always out there."
Riley went on to talk about the collective-bargaining agreement, about how signing away another team's elite free agent is far more difficult than when the Heat lured LeBron James and Chris Bosh during the 2010 offseason.
And that basically was it about harpooning, with Riley two weeks ago turning his focus within, over the next 40 or so minutes discussing the possibilities of bringing back James Johnson, Dion Waiters and the Heat's other free agents.
And yet in the ensuing two weeks, the NBA showed just how much can change.
Paul Millsap often found himself standing alone for the Atlanta Hawks, at least in their power rotation, with a small-ball approach that marginalized Dwight Howard right through to Friday's Hawks demise.
Blake Griffin broke down yet again, with Los Angeles Clippers post mortems being penned even before the fact, now down to an all-or-nothing game Sunday.
Gordon Hayward persevered with the Utah Jazz all the while realizing that the best-case scenario was the second round against the Golden State Warriors, that perhaps being a Western Conference upstart isn't all it's cracked up to be.
And that doesn't even get to the trade possibilities after Paul George's postseason flameout, Jimmy Butler's eye-opening and season-ending series against the Boston Celtics and a Carmelo Anthony dance with Phil Jackson that has left both stumbling.
Now, Riley may regret previously spouting off about big fish, may have attempted to show a more restrained side in his ESPN Magazine profile, but it's not as if 10 months removed from that Hamptons rendezvous with Kevin Durant he's abandoned the ship of big dreams.
Recall, there was a point last July when Riley said he also was finished, at that time when it came to spending in the wake of Dwyane Wade's departure and Tyler Johnson's mother load. Then he went out and spent again, on Waiters.
That was small fish. What has fascinated Riley, rightfully so, are the biggest fish, even with the denials, including the one he emphatically offered about Alonzo Mourning upon his arrival in 1995, with Glen Rice, Matt Geiger and Khalid Reeves days later known as former Heat players.
As Riley noted, the math is fuzzier than two decades ago or even a half decade ago or even from last summer, before this new collective-bargaining agreement was drawn.
Millsap, a previous Riley target, for example, this summer could command up to a $205 million five-year contract from the Hawks (no, really), as opposed to a maximum of $152 million over four years from an outside team such as the Heat.
And that's where Riley's newfound sensibilities could kick into place. Because even that $152 million deal from an outside team for Millsap would come with a $35.4 million starting salary for next season, effectively the sum total of the Heat's available cap space.
"I think you'll be required sometimes to get key players via trade, in that aspect, instead of going out, laying out $38 million for a guy," Riley said. "Some of these guys' max contracts are ridiculous."
Of course it was Riley who also expressed concern about his players being treated like chattel in trade rumors. And, yet, to trade for something you have to give up something more than cap space.
The point being that the NBA personnel market evolves, even when you're a postseason outsider, because of how the emotions of the playoffs can change the equation, from Larry Bird stepping down with the Indiana Pacers to Doc Rivers potentially being called to action with the Los Angeles Clippers to the Chicago Bulls' deferred midseason makeover perhaps yet to be implemented.
Which is why, if a whale does surface, for as softly as he might be speaking about the possibilities, have no doubt that Pat Riley could yet wield a big harpoon.
