With rumors still swirling about whether former Miami Heat coach Pat Riley may be coming back to the sidelines in order to attempt to win another NBA Championship, it may be appropriate to do a profile on Pat Riley so we can get a better feel for who exactly the man is. Is he a man who simply loves the games of basketball or is he an egomaniac who always has to be in the spotlight?
There are a lot of people who have grown to become seemingly distrustful of Pat Riley. One of these people would be likely be Stan Van Gundy. Van Gundy does basically feel like Riley stole his job out from under him with the Miami when Riley came back to lead the Heat to an NBA Championship after firing Van Gundy as noted by CBS Sports.
Pat Riley also has his share of critics from his time in New York when the Knicks brass accused Riley and the Miami Heat of tampering, the two talked to each other while Riley was still under contract with the New York Knicks as noted by the New York Times.
Some people love Pat Riley and other people think he is just a guy with slick backed hair that looks good in a suit. Many people do not even know that he was a two sports stars back in college and that he was actually drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in 1967 as noted by Tim Renyolds.
How could have the history of the NBA been different if Pat Riley had gone to the National Football League with the Dallas Cowboys? Would we have had “Showtime” in Los Angeles with the likes of James Worthy, Kareem (at the end of his career), Magic Johnson, Byron Scott and so many others if it were not for Pat Riley? Doubtful.
Pat Riley grew to be very good friends with the likes of Lakers legend Jerry West when Riley played with West on some of those Lakers teams of the 1970’s. Riley even grew to be friends with some of his fiercest competitors, mostly out of respect. Michael Jordan even went on to mention Pat Riley in his Hall of Fame speech as noted by ESPN. Jordan’s battles with Riley’s Knicks for a short time period in the early 1990’s were great.
Sources:
Vincent Mallozzi. “REPORT: Knicks file tampering charges over Riley.” New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/30/sports/basketball-knicks-file-tampering-charges-over-riley.html
Rick Reilly. “Be Like Mike.? No thanks.” ESPN.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=reilly_rick&id=4477759
Tim Renyolds. “Pat Riley named to Hall of Fame.” Breitbart.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8VT4K8O0&show_article=1
Ken Berger. “Riley riles up free agency further with simple statement.” CBS Sports.
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/story/13350343/riley-riles-up-free-agency-further-with-simple-statement
