Pat Riley

Riley returned to the NBA in 1977 as a broadcaster for the Lakers. In November 1979, after the team's head coach, Jack McKinney, was injured in a near-fatal bicycle accident, assistant coach Paul Westhead took over the team's head coaching duties[19] and hired Riley as an assistant coach.[20] With rookie guard Magic Johnson and longtime star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the Lakers defeated the Philadelphia 76ers in six games in the 1980 NBA Finals, giving Westhead and Riley championship rings in their first year coaching the team. However, the team lost in the playoffs the next year to the Moses Malone-led Houston Rockets.

Six games into the 1981–82 season, Magic Johnson said he wished to be traded because he was unhappy playing for Westhead. Shortly afterward, Lakers' owner Jerry Buss fired Westhead. At an ensuing press conference, with Jerry West at his side, Buss named West head coach. West, however, balked, and Buss awkwardly tried to name West as "offensive captain" and then named West and Riley as co-coaches.[21] West made it clear during the press conference that he would only assist Riley, and that Riley was the head coach.[22] Thereafter, Riley was the interim head coach, until his status became permanent.

Riley ushered in the Lakers' "Showtime" era, along with superstar players Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar with their running game. Riley became a celebrity in his own right, a fashion icon for his Armani suits and slicked-back hair which complemented the team's Hollywood image.[23]

Besides using Lakers' up-tempo style established by McKinney and Westhead, Riley was also innovative on defense; he was one of the first coaches to employ a 1-3-1 half-court trap to pick up the pace of the game.[24] Though the Showtime Lakers were known for their offense, they won championships with their defense.[25] In Michael Cooper, they had one of the top defensive guards in the game.[26] The league-wide perception was that the Lakers played with finesse and were not physical enough to win in the playoffs. Riley's mantra was "no rebounds, no rings", reinforcing the need to fight for rebounds in order to win championships.[27]

Riley led the Lakers to four consecutive NBA Finals appearances. His first title came in his first season, against the Philadelphia 76ers. Both teams returned to the Finals the next year, and this time Riley's Lakers were swept by the 76ers. The Lakers lost in the Finals again in 1984, to the Boston Celtics in seven games.[28] The Lakers earned Riley his second NBA title in 1985 in a rematch of the previous year, as the Lakers beat the Celtics in six games. The Lakers' four-year Western Conference streak was broken the following year by the Houston Rockets.

In 1987, Riley coached a Lakers team that is considered one of the best teams of all time. With future Hall of Famers Magic Johnson, James Worthy and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, plus Byron Scott, A. C. Green, Mychal Thompson, Kurt Rambis, and Cooper, the Lakers finished 65–17 in the regular season, third-best in team history. They met with similar success in the playoffs, dispatching the Celtics in six games to win Riley his third NBA title.

One of Riley's most famous moments came when he guaranteed the crowd a repeat championship during the Lakers' championship parade in downtown Los Angeles (he first made the guarantee during the post-victory locker room celebration).[29] While the 1988 Lakers did not produce as many wins in the regular season as the 1987 Lakers, they still won the NBA title, becoming the first team in 19 years to repeat as champions. The Lakers beat the Detroit Pistons in seven games in the 1988 NBA Finals, making good on Riley's promise. Riley's titles with the Lakers make him one of six men to play for an NBA Championship team and later coach the same NBA team to a championship; the others are George Senesky, Bill Russell, Tom Heinsohn, K. C. Jones and Billy Cunningham.

Although Riley would offer no further guarantees, his Lakers embarked upon a quest to obtain a third consecutive championship in 1989. Having successfully claimed a repeat championship the year before, the term used for this new goal was a three-peat championship, and Riley, through his corporate entity, Riles & Co., trademarked the phrase three-peat. However, in a rematch of the previous year's finals series, the Lakers were swept by the Pistons in the 1989 NBA Finals.

Riley was named NBA Coach of the Year for the first time in 1989–90, but stepped down as Lakers head coach after they lost to the Phoenix Suns in the playoffs. At the time of his departure, Riley was the foremost coach in the NBA with a level of fame not seen since Red Auerbach.[30]

After stepping down, Riley accepted a job as a television commentator for NBC for one year before being named head coach of the New York Knicks, starting with the 1991–92 season.

Commentators admired Riley's ability to work with the physical, deliberate Knicks, adapting his "Showtime" style with the fast-paced Laker teams in the 1980s. The Chicago Bulls had easily swept the Knicks in 1991 en route to their first championship. However, in 1992, with Riley, the Knicks pushed the defending champion Bulls to seven games in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The physical defense of the Knicks against the Chicago Bulls' superstars Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen during the 1992 playoffs led to a feud between Riley and Bulls head coach Phil Jackson regarding the officiating and the Knicks' rough style of play. In 1993, Riley led the Knicks to their best regular season record in team history (tied with the 1969–1970 team) and received his second Coach of the Year award. The Knicks again met the Bulls in the Eastern Conference finals but lost in six games after winning the first two games at home. Jackson's Bulls that season went on to win the finals and accomplish a "three-peat," despite Riley's trademark in 1989.[31]

Riley returned to the NBA Finals, in 1994, en route defeating the three-time defending champion Bulls (without Michael Jordan) in seven games during the Eastern Conference semifinals. However, New York lost in seven games to the Houston Rockets after being up 3–2 in the series. During the 1994 Finals, Riley became the first coach to participate in an NBA Finals Game 7 with two teams, having been with the Lakers in 1984 and 1988. However, he had the unfortunate distinction of becoming the first (and to date, only) coach to lose an NBA Finals Game 7 with two teams, having lost to the Celtics, in 1984. It also denied him the distinction of becoming the first coach to win a Game 7 in the Finals with two teams, having defeated the Pistons in seven games, in 1988.

In 1995, Riley resigned from the Knicks via fax to become president and head coach of the Miami Heat, with complete control over basketball operations. The move caused some controversy, as the Heat were accused by the Knicks of tampering by pursuing Riley while he still had a year remaining on his contract with the Knicks.[32] The matter was settled after the Heat sent their 1996 first-round pick (which the Knicks used to draft Walter McCarty) and $1 million in cash to the Knicks on September 1, 1995.

In the 1995–96 NBA season, Riley led the Heat to a 42–40 record, which was a 10-game improvement over the team's previous season. Miami was swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Phil Jackson-coached Chicago Bulls, who went on to win the NBA championship. This Heat season was notable for personnel changes, as the team welcomed franchise building blocks Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway. Following the season, the Heat also obtained Nets forward P.J. Brown and Suns swingman Dan Majerle.

In 1997, Riley's Heat defeated his old team, the Knicks, in a physical seven-game series. Advancing to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in franchise history, the Heat were again defeated by the eventual champion Bulls. Riley was selected as Coach of the Year for the third time after leading Miami to a 61–21 regular season record and first place in the Atlantic Division.

The Heat lost to the archrival Knicks in the playoffs in 1998, 1999, and 2000. Riley then traded Brown and Jamal Mashburn in exchange for Eddie Jones in one trade and acquired Brian Grant in another, although the team suffered a major setback after Alonzo Mourning was lost for the season due to a kidney ailment. After finishing 50–32 in the 2000–01 season, the Heat were swept by the Charlotte Hornets in the first round of the NBA playoffs. The Heat then lost two of their best players when guard Tim Hardaway was traded to the Dallas Mavericks and Anthony Mason signed with the Milwaukee Bucks. In part because of these departures, the Heat crumbled to a 36–46 in 2002–the first time that a Riley-coached team had not had a winning season or made the playoffs. Riley was so disgusted with the Heat's performance that he declared he was about to "fire himself".

After the Heat finished the 2002–03 season 25–57, Riley stepped down as head coach and was succeeded by longtime assistant Stan Van Gundy. In the 2003 NBA Draft, the Heat held the fifth overall pick, which they used to select Dwyane Wade. In July 2004, Riley traded Caron Butler, Brian Grant, Lamar Odom, and a first-round draft pick to the Lakers for star center Shaquille O'Neal. Wade and O'Neal led the Heat to the Eastern Conference Finals during the 2005 playoffs, where they lost to the defending champions Detroit Pistons after leading the series 3–2.[33]

Riley in 2007 during his second stint as the Heat's coach

During the 2005 off-season, it was widely speculated that Riley was attempting to push Van Gundy out and make himself head coach once again now that the team was a championship contender.[34] Van Gundy resigned from his position just 21 games into the 2005-2006 season, citing a need to spend more time with his family, and Riley named himself as Van Gundy's successor.[35] Riley's Heat team defeated the Detroit Pistons in the 2006 Eastern Conference Finals on June 2, 2006, the first time Miami reached the finals. Riley's Heat squared off against the Dallas Mavericks in the 2006 NBA Finals. Despite losing the first two games, the Heat rallied to win the next four and their first NBA championship. After Game 6, Riley commented that he had packed one suit, one shirt, and one tie for the trip to Dallas. It was Riley's fifth championship as a head coach and his first with a team other than the Lakers.[36]

Citing hip and knee problems, Riley took a leave of absence from coaching from January 3, 2007, through February 19, 2007. Assistant coach Ron Rothstein assumed interim duties. The Heat finished the season 44–38 and were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Chicago Bulls, the first defending champions swept in the first round since 1957.[37] The following season, the Heat finished 15–67. The team had lost several of its players to extended injuries, and a disgruntled Shaquille O'Neal was traded mid-season. Two years after winning the championship, they finished with one of the worst seasons in NBA history.[38] It also tied the Heat's inaugural season of 1988-89 as the worst in franchise history, and was easily the worst full-season record compiled by a Riley-coached team.

On April 28, 2008, Riley announced that he would step down as head coach while remaining team president. He named assistant Erik Spoelstra as head coach.[39] Although the Heat have nominally had a general manager for most of Riley's tenure as team president (Randy Pfund until 2008, and Andy Elisburg since 2013), Riley has had the final say in basketball matters since his arrival in Miami.[40][41]

In 2010, Riley acquired LeBron James and Chris Bosh to form the Heat's "Big Three" with Dwyane Wade. The Heat reached the NBA Finals each of the next four seasons (2011 through 2014). In 2012, the Heat beat the Oklahoma City Thunder to give Riley his first championship purely as an executive. The Heat repeated as champions in 2013, defeating the San Antonio Spurs.

In the 2019-2020 season, the Heat became the fourth team in NBA history to finish lower than fourth place in their conference in the regular season and make it to the NBA Finals. The 2019–20 Heat team has been considered by some to be Riley's "magnum opus", since the team's Finals run was not preceded by a dramatic rebuild or by the selection of a high draft pick. Before the season, Riley traded for Jimmy Butler, drafted Tyler Herro, and signed the undrafted Kendrick Nunn. Before the 2019–20 trade deadline, the Heat obtained Andre Iguodala and Jae Crowder.[1] Facing Riley's former team, the Los Angeles Lakers (led by former Heat superstar LeBron James), the Heat were defeated in six games.[42]