Biernutz
09-05-2008, 06:59 PM
Nobody in the game worked harder than the former Lakers coach, who won five NBA titles in L.A. and Miami.
Ira Winderman
South Florida Sun-Sentinal
Sept 5,2008
The image of polished perfection has made it to Springfield, Mass.
On one hand, that makes Pat Riley profoundly proud.
Because it's as if his father is going to the Basketball Hall of Fame with him tonight.
"My dad was dashing," he says of the late Lee Riley. "One thing he always did, was he had those wonderful Clark Gable-type suits on, and bright red ties and starched shirts. He had a lot of style to him."
But on the other hand, the portrait of Pat Riley presented over 24 seasons as an NBA head coach also is a distortion.
"People think I'm aloof or I'm arrogant, and I have a sense of that," Riley says of the refined persona that hardly tells the story of the kid from hardscrabble Schenectady, N.Y., who put in the type of hours these last three decades that belie the flawless facade.
"The fresh white shirt, tie, Armani suits, the image, the hair," the Miami Heat president says, "that was the mantra, 'Look fresh as a daisy,' even though there were times after losses I felt like I wanted to die."
The coach who was blessed with Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy at the start, who arrived in New York with Patrick Ewing at the peak of performance, and who stepped back to the bench when Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O'Neal were poised to present Miami with its first NBA championship, mostly made it look easy since inheriting the Showtime Lakers 11 games into the 1981-82 season.
Tonight, that perfectly pressed package will be inducted into his sport's ultimate cathedral.
"He kind of changed the game of coaching, with his smoothness, especially when he was younger, with all his Armani suits," Wade says. "He made it cool to be a coach."
The legacy is that he made it look easy.
The legacy lies.
"No one's put in as much time as he has," says Heat assistant coach Keith Askins, who played under Riley and served on his coaching staff. "He was prepared every day, every time he walked on that court. You can't fool people with that. Either you put in the work, or you don't."
Some came to view the relentless approach as over the top.
One assistant quit when Riley would call from Europe to make sure his staff was at the gym, at sunrise, in the dead of summer. Another left Riley's Heat staff after two seasons, overwhelmed by the commitment demanded.
The never-let-them-see-you-sweat coach privately sweated plenty, right until that day last April when he stepped down, convinced after 1,210 victories that it was time.
"I read a line one time," he says, "and I believe it to this day: 'Every day you're not out there practicing, there is somebody else practicing twice as hard who is going to kick your butt.' It's the same thing with coaching.
"So a lot of that was based on fear, that somebody was going to be better than me, that somebody was going to beat me."
More to the point, it was based on Schenectady, in the lessons of Lee Riley and Mary Riley.
Live to work. Work to live.
Link to story---
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-fame5-2008sep05,0,697719.story
Ira Winderman
South Florida Sun-Sentinal
Sept 5,2008
The image of polished perfection has made it to Springfield, Mass.
On one hand, that makes Pat Riley profoundly proud.
Because it's as if his father is going to the Basketball Hall of Fame with him tonight.
"My dad was dashing," he says of the late Lee Riley. "One thing he always did, was he had those wonderful Clark Gable-type suits on, and bright red ties and starched shirts. He had a lot of style to him."
But on the other hand, the portrait of Pat Riley presented over 24 seasons as an NBA head coach also is a distortion.
"People think I'm aloof or I'm arrogant, and I have a sense of that," Riley says of the refined persona that hardly tells the story of the kid from hardscrabble Schenectady, N.Y., who put in the type of hours these last three decades that belie the flawless facade.
"The fresh white shirt, tie, Armani suits, the image, the hair," the Miami Heat president says, "that was the mantra, 'Look fresh as a daisy,' even though there were times after losses I felt like I wanted to die."
The coach who was blessed with Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy at the start, who arrived in New York with Patrick Ewing at the peak of performance, and who stepped back to the bench when Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O'Neal were poised to present Miami with its first NBA championship, mostly made it look easy since inheriting the Showtime Lakers 11 games into the 1981-82 season.
Tonight, that perfectly pressed package will be inducted into his sport's ultimate cathedral.
"He kind of changed the game of coaching, with his smoothness, especially when he was younger, with all his Armani suits," Wade says. "He made it cool to be a coach."
The legacy is that he made it look easy.
The legacy lies.
"No one's put in as much time as he has," says Heat assistant coach Keith Askins, who played under Riley and served on his coaching staff. "He was prepared every day, every time he walked on that court. You can't fool people with that. Either you put in the work, or you don't."
Some came to view the relentless approach as over the top.
One assistant quit when Riley would call from Europe to make sure his staff was at the gym, at sunrise, in the dead of summer. Another left Riley's Heat staff after two seasons, overwhelmed by the commitment demanded.
The never-let-them-see-you-sweat coach privately sweated plenty, right until that day last April when he stepped down, convinced after 1,210 victories that it was time.
"I read a line one time," he says, "and I believe it to this day: 'Every day you're not out there practicing, there is somebody else practicing twice as hard who is going to kick your butt.' It's the same thing with coaching.
"So a lot of that was based on fear, that somebody was going to be better than me, that somebody was going to beat me."
More to the point, it was based on Schenectady, in the lessons of Lee Riley and Mary Riley.
Live to work. Work to live.
Link to story---
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-fame5-2008sep05,0,697719.story