Pat Riley

Lore & Background

Riley was born in Rome, New York and raised in Schenectady. He played basketball for Linton High School under head coach Walt Przybylo. Linton's 74–68 victory over New York City's Power Memorial on December 29, 1961, is remembered for its two stars: Power Memorial's Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Riley, who would go on to coach Abdul-Jabbar with the Lakers. Riley played college basketball for four seasons for the Kentucky Wildcats.

As a junior on the 1965–66 team, he was named First Team All-SEC, All-NCAA Tournament Team, NCAA Regional Player of the Year, SEC Player of the Year and AP Third Team All-American, leading the Wildcats to the 1966 NCAA title game. Coached by Adolph Rupp, UK lost to Texas Western. In his senior year, Riley made First Team All-SEC again. He was selected by the San Diego Rockets as the seventh overall pick of the 1967 NBA draft.

He was also drafted as a wide receiver by the Dallas Cowboys in the 11th round of the 1967 NFL/AFL draft. After three seasons with the Rockets, he was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1970 NBA expansion draft. The Blazers traded Riley to the Los Angeles Lakers, where he played for five seasons and was a reserve on the 1972 NBA Championship team. He was traded to the Phoenix Suns during the 1975–76 season and retired in 1976.

Riley returned to the NBA in 1977 as a broadcaster for the Lakers. In November 1979, after head coach Jack McKinney was injured, assistant coach Paul Westhead took over and hired Riley as an assistant coach. The Lakers won the 1980 NBA Finals. Six games into the 1981–82 season, after Magic Johnson requested a trade, owner Jerry Buss fired Westhead.

Buss initially named Jerry West head coach, but West balked, and Riley became interim head coach, later permanent. Riley ushered in the Lakers' 'Showtime' era. He led the Lakers to four consecutive NBA Finals appearances, winning titles in 1982, 1985, 1987, and 1988. In 1988, the Lakers became the first team in 19 years to repeat as champions.

Riley trademarked the phrase 'three-peat' through his corporate entity, Riles & Co. The Lakers won 57 games in 1989 and swept the Western Conference playoffs (11–0) before losing in the NBA Finals.

Reader's Guide

Riley was named NBA Coach of the Year three times (1989–90, 1992–93, 1996–97) as head coach of the Lakers, New York Knicks, and Miami Heat, respectively. He was head coach of an NBA All-Star Game team nine times: eight times with the Western Conference team (1982, 1983, 1985–1990) and once with the Eastern team (1993). In 1996, he was named one of the 10 Greatest Coaches in NBA history. In 2008, Riley was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach. He received the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award on June 20, 2012.