by Wendy R.

Created on: April 17, 2009   Last Updated: April 27, 2009

NBA coach Pat Riley was born in Schenectady New York, on March 20, 1945. Riley came from a family of athletes, his father Leon playing over twenty years of minor league baseball, and his brother Lee playing football for the Detroit Lions. Riley attended Linton High School in Schenectady, where he was a star basketball and baseball player. He attributes his former high school coach, Walt Przybylo with helping him work on his attitude.

After graduating from Linton High School, Riley attended the University of Kentucky. Here he became a star basketball player, earning the Most Valuable Player award three times. He graduated from Kentucky in 1967, having excelled in both basketball and football. Reilly later attributed former Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp for making him realize he could be a good player and have a good work ethic.

Upon his graduation from Kentucky, Riley was picked by the San Diego Rockets basketball team. They were a new team and Riley played for them for three years, before he left to play for the Los Angeles Lakers. During his time with the Lakers, Riley led them to the NBA Championship in 1972. He later retired from playing basketball in 1976, after finishing his playing career with the Phoenix Suns.

In 1980, Pat Riley returned to the Los Angeles Lakers, this time as an assistant coach under Paul Westhead. When Westhead was fired, Riley took over as coach and led the Lakers to Championships in 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988. Riley was named the Coach of the Year in 1990, but resigned as coach of the Lakers after the 1990 season and became a television commentator for NBC. This job as lasted until the next year when he became coach of the New York Knicks. Riley led the Knicks to a historical season in 1993 when they had the best regular season in their history. This helped Riley receive his second Coach of the Year Award. Riley stayed with the Knicks until 1995, when he resigned.

Pat Riley then joined the Miami Heat, a team that was thought to have pursued him while he was still under contract to the Knicks. He coached them to a 61-21 record in 1997, which was good enough to earn them the top spot in their division. For many years, the Heat compiled over a .600 winning percentage, only to lose in the playoffs to Riley's former team, the Knicks. In 2003, Riley took a brief respite from coaching and became the general manager of the team. Riley returned to coaching and led the Miami Heat to their first NBA Championship in 2006. Riley retired from coaching in 2008, but remains involved with the Heat, as team President. He was inducted into the basketball hall of fame the same year.

Pat Riley, for all of his successes, has never forgotten his roots. He returns home to Schenectady periodically (his mother still lives there), returning for the Schenectady City School District Hall of Fame induction and for other activities where he can give back to the city where he was raised. Riley believed Schenectady in the 1950's and 1960's was a great place to be raised, and he will never forget the influence it had on his life.

Sources:

http://www.schenectady.k12.ny.us/news/Inthenews/2008 -2009/Riely.dailygazette.090608.pdf

http://www.biogra phy.com/search/article.do?id=16730350

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