Pat Riley

Pat Riley is one of the renowned personalities who is an American professional basketball executive and former coach of the National Basketball Association as well as president of the Miami Heat since 1995. Pat Riley became NBA Coach of the year thrice and has worked as a coach for Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks as well.

Early Life

Pat Riley was born on March 20, 1945(age 76 years) in Rome, New York, and raised in Schenectady, New York. He was born to his mother Mary Rosalia Balloga(Housewife) and father Leon Riley. His father is a champion and has played 22 seasons of minor league baseball and appeared for the 1944 Philadelphia Phillies. Further, he holds American Nationality and of Causation ethnicity. His sexual orientation is straight and his zodiac sign is Pisces. Talking about his siblings there are not many details regarding them as of now. He has had a great interest in basketball from the very beginning of his childhood as he used to play for his school as well.

Education

Moving towards his educational status he completed his high schooling at Linton High School in Schenectady. There he played basketball as a member of the team under the head coach Walt Przbylo and assistant Bill Rapavy and Ed Catino. He became one of the valuable members of Linton High School’s 74-68 victory over New York city’s Power Memorable till now for his remarkable performance. He along with Power Memorial’s Lew Alcindor(named changed to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) performed historically and is remembered as one of the greatest games in the history of Schenectady basketball in 1991.

After completing his schooling he joined Kentucky college for his higher education. There he played College basketball for four seasons for Kentucky wildcats(one o the freshman team). At first, he played as the junior member of the team Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball from 1965-to 1966. He became first-team all-SEC, All NCAA Tournament Team, NCAA Regional Player of the year, SEC Player of the year,  and AP Third-team All American leading the team to the 1966 NCAA Title game. Wildcats were coached by Adolph Rupp where the UK Lost to Texas western and this game was reenacted in the movie Glory Road. In his senior year, he made it to First Team All-SEC and was named First Team All-SEC twice in history.

Professional Career

Riley is a renowned personality in both basketball and coaching lines. After his graduation from college, he was selected by San Diego Rockets as the seventh overall pick of the 1967 NBA Draft. Likewise, he was even selected as a wide receiver by the Dallas Cowboys in the 11th round of the 1967 NLF Draft despite being a non-footballer. He played 3 seasons with the Rockets and after that, he was selected by Portland Trail Blazers in the 1970 NBA expansion draft. After being part of the blazers Riley moved to Los Angeles Lakers and played for five seasons. He played a crucial role in the 1972 NBA Championship of the Lakers. Further, he was traded to the phoenix suns in the 1975-1976 NBA Seasons. After that, he retired in 1976  gaining an average score of 7.4 points per game over his nine seasons in the league.

Caption: Pat Riley’s old photo captured during his basketball match (Source: Instagram)

His Coaching career

After retiring from the game he moved towards the coaching field. He has been a coach for Los Angeles Lakers(1981-1990), New York Knicks(1991-1995), and Miami Heat(1995-2003, 2005-2008). Before starting his career as a coach he was an assistant coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. The team’s head coach ack McKinney was injured in a bike accident after which the assistant coach Paul Westhead had to take over. During which Pat Riley was hired as an assistant coach. With remarkable trade, The team defeated the Philadelphia 76ers in six games in the 1980 NBA  Finals.

After the win both the coach was given a heads up but unfortunately, they lost their second match to Moses Malone. After that in 1981 with some internal discussion underlined he was considered the co-coaches along with jerry west. But later jerry wished only to assist Riley and ultimately he was announced head coach of Los Angeles. Riley has become a celebrity and a fashion icon in his own way with his personality of Armani Sits and slicked black hair similar to Hollywood’s image.

Los Angeles Lakers(1979-1990)

During his career as a head coach, he won the first NBA Championship game in 1981-1982 against the Philadelphia 76ers. In his lead, he led the team to consecutive finals appearances. The team lost their finals in 1984 against Boston Celtics but gained the NBA title in 1985 against Celtics in his sixth game. In 1987 he lead the best team of all time with the members including Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Michael Cooper, Byron Scott, A.C Green, Mychal Thompson, and Kurt Rambis.

He’s one of the famous movements was when he guaranteed the crowd a repeat championship during the Lakers championship parade in Los Angeles. His main mantra was ‘no rebounds, no rings’ with the innovative on defense with the only coach to employ a 1-3-1 half-court trap to pick up the pace of the game. Before the players were known for their offensive game and after his led, they won the championship with the defense. After his remarkable trademark in the NBA Championship, he was also named NBA Coach of the year in 1989-1990 for the first time.

New York Knicks(1991-1995)

After resigning from the previous team he started as a television commentator for MBC for one year. Further, he was appointed as the head coach of New York Knicks starting with the 1991-1992 season with the first loss against The Chicago Bulls. But in 1992 Riley pushed the Chicago team to seven games in the Western Conference semifinals. Some disputes between the two teams regarding the physical defense of knicks with superstar Mical Jorden lead misunderstanding between the head coaches Riley and Phil Jackson.

However, in 1993, Riley lead the team to their best regular-season record in history with the award of best coach of the year twice. Likewise, he returned to NBA in 1994 with the win against three-time defending champion Bulls in seven games during the Western Conference semifinals. Lastly, he lost the game to Houston Rockets with 3-2 in the series. He created history by participating in NBA final games 7 with two teams and lost with both the teams.

Miami Heat(1995-present)

He resigned from the knights via fax in 1995 to become the president of Miami heat. This also created controversies that Riley didn’t leave up to the contract of the New York Knicks as there was still one year for his contract.  Later it was settled down and with his first game to the team in 1995-1996, he led the Heat to a 42-40 record. He welcomed some new faces to the team including(Alonzo Mourning, Tim Hardaway-building blocks, P.J Brown and Dan Majerle. In the year 1997 Riley defeated his previous team New York Knicks. This leads to the Eastern Conference finals but was defeated by the champions Bulls.

Riley was selected as the coach of the year third time. In the years 2002-2003, he stepped down as the head coach leaving the team to long-time assistant Stan Van Gundy. But after the resignation of Van Gundy, he again stepped as the head coach. fear his first comeback his team defeated Detroit Pistons in 2006, Eastern Conference finals leading the team to finals for the first time. There was a historic win in the 2006 NBA Finals for Miami Heat and was Riley’s first championship as a head coach(first with his team and another with the lakers). Due to some medical problem, Riley thought of stepping down as the head coach of the team. On 28 April 2008 he remained as the team president.

Besides Basketball

As mentioned above he has a very unique and enduring personality. His slicked-back hairstyle and black suit are quite similar to a gangster so his nickname was ‘The Godfather. After having a successful career in the basketball field he moved towards the book’s genre. He published his first book in 1988 entitled Showtime: Inside the lakers breakthrough season. It was one of the best time seller book in New York. It describes the NBA Champions Lakers and was also coined Disease of More book. He published his second book while he was still working as a coach for New York Knicks. The book was entitled The Winner Within A life plan for team players. It was again new york best time seller.

Last but not least his friendship with Giorgio Armani is not hidden anyway. He wears Armani suits during basketball games and has modeled once for the brand as well. Miami Heat was honored at the white house on February 27, 2007, after winning the NBA Championship in( 2005-2006). George W presented him at that time. Bush with a Jersey.

Awards and Nominations

As mentioned he has been a known personality with tons of awards in his name. He has received NBA Champion Ten times. One as a player, one as an assistant coach, five as a head coach, and three as an executive. Similarly, he won NBA Coach of the year thrice as pe mentioned above. Moreover, he is a nine-time NBA All-star game head coach with a remarkable trademark. Likewise, in 2011 he became NBA Executive of the year. He was also introduced to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall Of Fame. In Addition, he got  Lifetime Achievement Award in the year 2012 by Chuck Daly.

Net Worth

Pat Riley is a known personality in the field of basketball. He has an estimated net worth of around $100 Million. He gains his main income source through basketball (team president and executive). Along with that, he has expanded his income to different properties settlement. He has his own house with large residences and many cars collections as well. Today he is fortunate to have a healthy, happy family with a luxurious lifestyle.

Relationship Status

He is a married man and has two kids as well. Pat and Chris Rodstrom are a lovely couple and high school lovers as well. They get familiar with one another in the 1960s. Then, pat was playing for San Diego and Chris was studying at the University of San Diego. Likewise, they felt connected soon after their first meeting and are together since then and tie the knot in June 1970. However, they are a perfect example and are living their best lives. Together they have two kids and are Elisabeth Riley( born in 1989) and James Riley.

Caption: Pat Riley posing with his partner (Source: Instagram)

Body Measurements and Social Media

Being an athletic person he has a height of around 6 feet 4 inches with a weight of around 93kgs. Other than that he has brown eyes with slightly brown hair status. As mentioned above he has a very unique personality of slicked back hairstyle, and black suit. So he looks quite similar to a gangster so his nickname was ‘The Godfather. Besides that, there are not many details about his body measurements.

Though he is one of the known personalities he does not share much of his personal life on social media. He has fans all over and being on social media or not being on them doesn’t bother much. But looking at his social media status he is much active on one of them.

Source: Mask