Pat Riley
Pat Riley
Patrick James "Pat" Rileyis an American professional basketball executive, and a former coach and player in the National Basketball Association. He has been the team president of the Miami Heat since 1995 and head coach in two separate tenures. Widely regarded as one of the greatest NBA coaches of all time, Riley has served as the head coach of five championship teams, four with the Los Angeles Lakers and one with the Heat...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth20 March 1945
CityRome, NY
CountryUnited States of America
He'd average 20 points a game if he was put in that role every night and I'll be damned if I'm not going to try to put him in that role - now. You forget a little bit about how good he can be if he gets good opportunities.
He kept telling me he's ready. But I'm a stubborn old coach.
He keeps rising to the occasion. A remarkable player. I'm glad to have him on my side.
He just got beat down there, didn't he? Phil is one of the great complainers of all time.
He knows exactly how it is (the Bulls defend him). It's not a system; it's five against one.
He knows exactly how it is. It's very simple. It's five against one. We can live with that and we will. He saw enough to be able to create shots for other people.
Half of the guys were asking, 'What is this about? This is just about a hoop game, right?' I said, 'No, no it's not. You'll find out. It's a lot more than that. I would recommend the NBA show it to all of its young players. These Texas Western guys paved the way, and a lot of these guys don't even know it.
There are so many similarities other than size.
He is a very athletic, quick, explosive scorer and has great experience. One of the reasons why we are making the trade is that we haven't had anyone here like that since Tim Hardaway left.
He had 19 at the half and I ran one play for him. He just gets it.
He made the game easy for us. There are nights when there's going to be some real heavy lifting on his part, and there are going to be nights when he has to facilitate. I thought he did a great job in doing that.
He needs to dominate. We know it, he knows it. And it isn't a question of whether or not the ball is coming to him, he's got to go get it. It's getting to the point where it's got to be 10, 12, 14, 15 every night. When Shaq goes after the basketball then he's going to get those 15 rebounds.
He might get 100. If you can get 81 . . . absolutely. He has the mentality to do that and conditioning. He's one of the best conditioned athletes in the world.
Today is not indicative of who we are. It's a little bit indicative of who Chicago is. I was very conscious of minutes and then at the end, I was very conscious of health.