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
I've seen a lot of plays like that. I coached Magic Johnson.
With me, you're either in or out. I picked them. I'm with them. I'm going to try to keep coaching them. I'm not going let this shake me. I've been around this game too damn long.
I coached an absolutely awful game; terrible game plan, pick-and-roll schemes; everything.
But it's up to Shaquille, too. I mean, it's up to him. And this is where the old coach came out of Stu. He started using some coaching terminology. He said, 'Well, you've got to get him to make a V-cut every now and then. If he makes a V-cut, then they impede his progress, they'll call it.
If we had brought back the exact same group we had last year, I think the results would be good, but we needed more talent, ... We built the team around Shaquille that's a now team. We want to get it done as quick as we can. This is by far the best team that I've been around since the ones that I coached in Los Angeles.
The voters will put in the best players, and the coaches will take care of the rest.
When it comes right down to it I coached a horrible game. I started the wrong lineup, I made the wrong substitutions and I called the wrong plays.
The demise of Shaquille O'Neal has been greatly exaggerated. I can guarantee you that - and I coach him.
I was concerned about where we'd be, as I'm sure most coaches are coming back (from the All-Star break). We have one game in 10 days, and this was it. We started to play very well at the end of the (first) quarter.
He kept telling me he's ready. But I'm a stubborn old coach.
Great effort springs naturally from a great attitude.
He told me how exciting it was to coach and that I would probably love it. That was very encouraging.
I don't think he fights it. I really don't. It's a hard thing to do. But I do think everybody that I have coached that have gotten a little bit older, they realize in order to maintain in this league that they have to do something differently.
If you get tough mentally, you can get tough physically and overcome fatigue.