Pat Riley

1945-

American basketball coach

Currently president and head coach for the Miami Heat basketball team, Pat Riley has been an NBA coach for more than 20 years. He started as a coach for the Los Angeles Lakers before moving to the New York Knicks, and finally to the Miami Heat. His NBA regular season win-loss record in 2002 stood at a remarkable 1,085-502. Those 1,085 wins were second only to coach Lenny Wilkens . His record of 155 post-season wins was bettered only by Phil Jackson in the history of the NBA. Riley's 255 postseason games are an all-time NBA record. During the 1996-97 season, Riley was named one of the Top 10 Coaches of All-Time by a panel of sports journalists.

Riley's other accomplishments include 16 divisional championships, eight conference championships, and a total of four NBA championships. Named NBA coach of the year three times, Riley is the only NBA coach ever to have received this honor as coach of three different teams. From 1982 to 2001, Riley coached 19 playoffs in a row, a league record. He is also tied for the most playoffs for one coach. Riley has also coached nine NBA All-Star games. In addition, Riley has won 50 games in a single season and NBA record-breaking 17 times. He has taken his teams to victory 60 times in one season seven times, at least once with each of the three NBA teams he has coached.

Riley reached a major milestone in the 2000-01 season when he became fastest the coach or manager to reach 1,000 wins—not just in the NBA, but in all four of the professional sports in North America.

A Family of Athletes

Patrick Riley was born in 1945 in Schenectady, New York, where he attended Linton High School. His was an athletic family; his father, Leon "Lee" Riley, was a professional baseball player. He played catcher and outfielder for the Philadelphia Blue Jays in 1944. Leon Riley went on to become a manager for the Blue Jays organization in the minor leagues. Pat Riley's brother Lee was also an athlete. He played football for the National Football League's Detroit Lions, the Philadelphia Eagles, and the New York Giants from 1955-60. Lee also played for the American Football League's New York Titans in 1961-62.

In high school, Pat Riley excelled in both baseball and basketball. After graduating from high school, Riley went on to the University of Kentucky in 1963, where he became a star basketball player, earning the school team's Most Valuable Player award three times. He graduated from Kentucky in 1967.

After graduating from college, Riley was picked in the first round of selections to play for the San Diego Rockets basketball team during that team's first season, 1967-68. He played with the Rockets for three seasons before joining the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1970-71 season; he played with the Lakers for five years. During his first season with the Lakers, the team won 33 games in a row, at the time an NBA record. The Lakers also went on that year to win the NBA championship. In 1976, Riley spent his last year as a player with the Phoenix Suns.

From Basketball Player to Coach

After retiring as a player, Riley worked as a television broadcaster for the Lakers beginning in 1977. He stayed in this post until 1979. At the start of the 1979-80 season, Riley accepted an offer from Paul Westhead, the head coach of the Lakers to become his assistant coach.

Riley took over as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers early in the 1981-82 season. In his very first season in the top coaching position, the Lakers won the NBA Championship. During the nine years Riley was head coach for the Lakers, the team won four NBA titles in seven NBA Finals appearances. Riley also led the Lakers to 60 wins four seasons in a row (1984-85 through the 1987-88 season). Under Riley, the Lakers won every division title, and won 50 or more games in each of the nine seasons Riley led them. The Lakers' win-loss record under Riley was 533-194. In 1990, Riley earned the first of his Coach of the Year awards. He told the Washington Post 's Anthony Cotton after winning the award, "I don't want to belittle the award—it does mean something—but I think I became a good coach when I stopped worrying about things like recognition."

Chronology

A Winning Philosophy

Asked during this time to describe his winning philosophy that helped the Lakers perform so well, Riley told Cotton, "When I came in, I'd never coached anywhere before, so what I started doing was teaching a philosophy that I didn't know I'd even had. There were never any ABCs, but over the years there's definitely been a definitive series of things I believe in." One of those things that he believes in, is something Riley has consistently promoted at each of the three NBA teams he has coached—the power of teamwork. Not one to believe in individual grandstanding, his style of coaching has each team member pulling for the others to create a whole that is greater than the some of its parts. "I'm a tremendous believer in peer pressure," he told Cotton. "I look at our team as a big circle with 12 parts and I'm on the perimeter just trying to make sure it stays enclosed. It's okay for a player to have space and to get out on a limb at times, but he has to be aware of the others and that they will pull him back in."

Riley left the Lakers in 1990, going to work for the NBC television network as co-host of a show called NBA Showtime. He held this job only until 1991, when he went to work for the New York Knicks as head coach. During his four years with the Knicks, Riley led the team to four playoffs in a row, concluding his time with a .680 winning percentage, the best in the history of the team. His 50 wins in each of his four years with the team also set a record for the team. In 1994, Riley led the Knicks to the NBA finals. It was the first time the team had made it to the finals since the 1972-73 season. His work with the Knicks earned him recognition as NBA Coach of the Year in 1993. It was the second time he had won the honor.

Riley moved from the Knicks to become head coach of the Miami Heat in September, 1995. One of his first moves on taking charge was to bring in center Alonzo Mourning, who subsequently became the team's star player. In the 1996-97 season Riley received his third NBA Coach of the Year honor, becoming the first to be named Coach of the Year while with three different teams. In December, 1997, Riley also earned Coach of the Month honors.

One of Riley's major accomplishments with the Heat has been to lead his team to a remarkable recovery from the devastating loss of Alonzo Mourning. Mourning had to drop out of the game in 2000 because of kidney disease. Analysts wrote off the rest of the season for the Heat, but Riley successfully juggled his remaining players to lead his team to a 50-32 win-loss record to finish second in the Atlantic Division.

Active Beyond Baseball

In addition to coaching basketball, Riley is a highly successful motivational speaker, traveling around the United States speaking to corporate executives about how better to manage their "teams" of employees. He is also the author of two books, Show Time, and The Winner Within.

Riley and his wife Chris are also actively involved in many charitable organizations, including the Miami Heat Family Outreach, which they founded in 1997, and which provides funds to community service organizations in the South Florida area, the Kids for Kids organization of the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, which they founded in 1992, the YMCAs of Los Angeles, New York, and Miami, and the Boys and Girls Clubs. Riley's honors in connection with these activities include the Miami Project Sports Legend Award, which he received in 1992, and the Boys and Girls Clubs Miami Person of the Year Award, which he received in 1998.

SELECTED WRITINGS BY RILEY:

Show Time: Inside the Lakers'Breakthrough Season. New York: Warner Books, 1988.

Related Biography: Baseball Player Leon "Lee" Riley

Pat Riley's father, Lee Riley, was a professional baseball player who played for 22 years in the minor leagues for 21 different teams. He also played one season in the major leagues. This was in 1944, when he played for the Philadelphia Blue Jays. He was 38 years old when he began and ended his major league career. He went on to become a minor league manager.

Leon Francis Riley was born on August 20, 1906, in Princeton, Nebraska. As an outfielder in the minor leagues, he led his league in batting at one time, once in triples, twice in homers, and twice in batting average. His minor league career batting average was .314, with 2,418 hits, including 248 home runs.

Lee Riley died in Schenectady, New York on September 13, 1970. This was the same year that his son Pat Riley became a basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Awards and Accomplishments

The Winner Within: A Life Plan for Team Players. New York: Putnam's Sons, 1993.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Periodicals

Cotton, Anthony. "Riley Directs a Quality Production; Coach Has Lakers Right on Cue, Drops Curtain on Personal Accolades." Washington Post (June 14, 1987): C4.

"Pat Riley Profile." Chicago Sun-Times (May 20, 1993): C4.

Other

"Lee Riley Statistics." Baseball Almanac. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=rileyle01 (December 13, 2002).

"Lee Riley Statistics." Baseball-Reference.com. http://www.baseball-reference.com/r/rileyle01.html (December 13, 2002).

"Pat Riley Coach Info." NBA.com. http://www.nba.com/coachfile/pat_riley/?nav=page (December 9, 2002).

"Ten Minor Leaguers for the Ages." EricEnders.com. http://www.ericenders.com/minorleaguers.htm (December 13, 2002).

Sketch by Michael Belfiore