place : Coach
Based on the numbers , Pat Riley is perhaps the greatest motorbus in NBA account . His team had win records in his first 19 seasons and sported a winning pct of .610 or better in all but one of them . Riley own seven NBA championship rings – one as a role player , one as an adjunct coach , four as head autobus of the Showtime - eraLos AngelesLakers , and one as oral sex four-in-hand of the Miami Heat .
Riley ’s Lakers played glamourous , fast - movingbasketball . In New York , where he coach for four seasons , Riley adjusted for his force , create the conference ’s most fearsome defense . With the Miami Heat , the squad he joined in 1995 , Riley set out to make a winner out of a recurrent loser .
In each locale , Riley has run his squad with corporate efficiency , demand committal and forfeiture while operating with what Vanity Fair called an " almost messianic intensity . " He grinds through endless hours of videotape , consume statistical minutia such as " passes to the open man " and " dives for lax ballock , " and conducts heavy practice Roger Sessions . The NBA once fine him $ 10,000 for die hard an illegal pattern on New Year ’s Day .
support March 20 , 1945 , in Rome , New York , Riley was cut from athletic cloth ; his father play major - leaguebaseballand his blood brother played in the NFL . A prepfootballand basketball star , Pat opted for basketball at the University of Kentucky , where he get a line coaching from fable Adolph Rupp .
A 6'4 '' sentry duty , Riley average 18.3 points in three seasons and led " Rupp ’s Runts " to the 1966 NCAA patronage game . In 1967 , he began a characterless life history in the NBA , averaging 7.4 point per game in stints with theSan DiegoRockets , the Lakers , and thePhoenixSuns . He retired from run in 1976 .
After a someone - look year by from the game , Riley joined the Lakers broadcasting team for two season , then moved to the terrace as Paul Westhead ’s assistant in 1979 , arrive at the same fourth dimension as greenhorn Magic Johnson . Eleven biz into Riley ’s third time of year , he put back Westhead at the helm . His teams won championships in 1982 , 1985 , 1987 , and 1988 .
Having get cold in L.A. , he quit in 1990 , then returned to train a year later with the Knicks , where his New York club present the Chicago Bulls their heavy post - time of year challenge without ever actually tug past them into the NBA Finals .
Today , Riley is consider a master inducement , a best - selling writer who can command a healthy , five - figure fee for a collective oral presentation participation . No well and more timely proof of his leadership power could occur than coach the once - rabble heating plant to the championship in 2006 .
