Biography

Pat Riley

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Patrick James Riley (born March 20, 1945) is an American professional basketball executive, and a former coach and player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been the team president of the Miami Heat since 1995 and head coach in two separate tenures (1995 through 2003, and 2005 through 2008). Regarded as one of the greatest NBA coaches of all time, Riley has served as the head coach of five championship teams. He won four with the Los Angeles Lakers during their Showtime era in the 1980s, and one with the Heat in 2006.
- IMDb mini biography by: NBA

First job with the Lakers was as broadcaster alongside the legendary Chick Hearn. In 1979, six games into the season, then-Laker coach Jack McKinney was seriously injured in a bicycle accident. Assistant Paul Westhead was promoted to head coach and hired Riley out of the broadcast booth to be an assistant.
Coined the phrase "three-peat". Actually has the phrase trademarked and charges sports teams a fee if they want to use it.
Only coach in NBA history to take three different teams to the NBA Finals.
Was not the first choice to be Lakers' head coach after Paul Westhead was fired. Early in the 1981-1982 season, when the Lakers were struggling and Magic Johnson wasn't happy, owner Jerry Buss fired Westhead and, at an ensuing press conference, named then-general manager Jerry West head coach. West responded by saying, "Like hell!" Buss then turned to Riley, then an assistant, and said "Do you want the job?" Riley only agreed to take the job if West would sit at the bench for a few games until he felt comfortable. The rest, of course, is history.
Has coached some of the best centers in the NBA: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, and Shaquille O'Neal. Riley also played with Wilt Chamberlain, another great center, on the Lakers.

[Reflecting on the six-game Finals loss to Miami Heat]I would like to see what it would be like with everybody whole. We'll get our chance again. The Lakers have the greatest player in the game today in LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
On Miami Heat]They beat us fair and squarely. But there will be always be that asterisk; if we had Bam and Goran 100 percent - Goran was our leading scorer entering the Finals - it might have gone to a seventh game

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