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Schenectady's Riley elected to Basketball Hall of Fame
April 7, 2008
The Associated Press


Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees Pat Riley, left, and Patrick Ewing, right, look on as Hakeem Olajuwon is interviewed by Jim Nance at a news conference Monday in San Antonio, Texas.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Mired in his roughest season, Schenectady native Pat Riley has received basketball's highest honor.
The Miami Heat coach and president was selected this afternoon for induction to the Basketball Hall of Fame, a long-expected accolade that comes tinged in irony. Riley's Heat have the worst record in the NBA this season at 13-64, and will finish with the lowest win total of his career.
For one day, though, all that can be forgotten.
"It means something good, for me personally, has come out of this year," Riley said.
Schenectady's newest Hall of Famer
To read a profile of newly elected Basketball Hall of Famer Pat Riley that appeared in Sunday's edition of The Sunday Gazette, click here.
The one-time Linton High School star has five championships as an NBA head coach, one as an assistant and another as a player. He ranks third all-time in NBA coaching victories with 1,208, has the high school gym in his hometown of Schenectady named in his honor, is a best-selling author and is widely considered one of the game's best motivators.
But the Hall's call completes his resume. Most individual awards mean little to Riley, but he acknowledged that this one was different.
"This would represent the 16 coaches I've had in my life," Riley said. "My father, especially him."
Riley's father, Leon, was a baseball player and manager for most of his life, and it was from lessons learned from him that Riley's penchant for athletics was born.
Riley remains a legend among high school athletes in the Capital Region, was a star player for Adolph Rupp at Kentucky in the 1960s and was even drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in 1967 — the year he began NBA play with the San Diego Rockets.
Four decades later, Riley's status as one of basketball's legends now cannot be argued.
"It's an emotional time for Pat, his family, his friends, to know that he's worked that hard," said Ed Maull, one of Riley's closest friends and confidants within the Heat organization. "You stop and think about the guys in that Hall of Fame. You're talking about the Bob Knights, the John Woodens, the Chuck Dalys, the Red Auerbachs. For a man in his profession, you can't get a higher accolade."
Riley and the other members of the 2008 class will be enshrined Sept. 5 in Springfield, Mass., about a 90-minute drive from Riley's childhood home. The rest of the Hall class includes Patrick Ewing, who played for Riley with the New York Knicks, along with Hakeem Olajuwon, Adrian Dantley, Cathy Rush, Bill Davidson and Dick Vitale.
Riley's pro playing career lasted nine seasons, and eventually Riley joined the Los Angeles Lakers' broadcast team. He was eventually named an assistant coach by Paul Westhead, then replaced Westhead as head coach 11 games into the 1981-82 campaign and led the Lakers to that season's NBA championship.
Riley's Lakers won other NBA titles in 1985, 1987 and 1988. His slicked-back hair and finely tailored suits gave the impression that Riley was all about style, but his teams played with a substance that no franchise in the league during that era could match.
After his Lakers days ended, Riley coached the Knicks for four seasons, then came to Miami as coach and president in 1995.
"Riles took guys that didn't have great talent, guys that no one else considered using as players, and turned them into great players," Heat center Alonzo Mourning said. "There's something about having a coach that brings the best out of players. He places very high demands on guys. That's how he got the best out of guys. That's why he's a Hall of Famer."

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SCHENECTADY
Local star was ‘destined for great things’
NBA coach Riley tapped for Hall of Fame
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    Pat Riley would always show up for Linton High School basketball practice early, work hard and then stay late.
    His tireless work ethic and determination produced a career in basketball from Schenectady through the professional ranks. But it wasn’t until Riley picked up a coach’s clipboard with the starstudded Los Angeles Lakers that his motivation propelled him to national fame.
    “It’s either win or fail,” he told The Daily Gazette in April 1984, as the Lakers were gearing up for the playoffs. “There’s no in between . . . no other short-term goals would satisfy the people out here.”
    Though he was unsuccessful that year, Riley won five championships as a coach in the National Basketball Association. Stints in Los Angeles, New York and now Miami have earned him 1,208 victories and rank him third all-time among NBA coaches.
    On Monday, Riley was selected for induction into the National Basketball Hall of Fame. He and others selected this year will take their places during a ceremony at the Springfield, Mass., hall in September.
    “He always had a strong desire to achieve the greatest heights and he was always successful doing it,” said Mike Meola, a former teammate of Riley and a retired city teacher. “He’s a hard-nosed guy who knew what he wanted and went out and worked for it.”
    Riley was among the top Schenectady-area ballplayers during the 1960s and 1970s. He was preceded at Linton by Barry Kramer, a former NBA player, and followed by Sidney Edwards, a former member of the Harlem Globetrotters.
    But Riley, a 1963 graduate of Linton, quickly showed he was in a league of his own. In his three years with Linton, he scored more than 1,000 points and helped guide his team to a 46-7 record.
    “Those of us who played with him knew he was destined for great things,” recalled Warren DeSantis, a friend who played high school basketball with him. “Every day instead of being the star of the team, he worked out like he was trying to make the team.”
    Though he never played high school ball with Riley, Kramer, now Schenectady County Surrogate Court judge, was keenly aware of his determination. He said Riley’s competitive streak would come out whenever he’d take to the court. Kramer faced him in recreational play.
    “That was his nature as a player, and I think that’s still his nature as a coach,” he said.
    Riley’s acclaim traveled with him from Schenectady to the University of Kentucky, where he was an All-American and helped the team to a championship in 1966. He was selected as the seventh overall pick by the NBA’s San Diego Rockets and later joined the Lakers, whom he helped win a championship in 1972.
    It wasn’t until a decade later that Riley began his most significant contributions as a coach. At the age of 36, he led the Lakers to a championship in his first year.
    Riley never forgot his roots. While the Lakers were planning their victory celebration on the West Coast, their coach was traveling back to Schenectady to put on a basketball clinic and an assembly for the city school district, recalled Bob Pezzano, a retired teacher and chairman of the district’s Athletic Hall of Fame committee.
    “He was just as generous as he could be with his time,” he said. “That’s when I noticed how committed he is.”
    Riley’s visits to the city haven’t stopped. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, he helped school districts in Rotterdam and the city establish Project DARE programs.
    When Schenectady High School dedicated the refurbished gymnasium to him in 1997, he attended the ceremonies and used the attention to urge the district to remember the great coaches of Schenectady. The district established the Athletic Hall of Fame the following year and inducted Riley in 2000; he has since returned twice as a keynote speaker during the group’s annual dinner.
    “It’s a tremendous honor,” said Schenectady Mayor Brian U. Stratton. “It’s a deserved and fitting honor for Pat Riley and the hometown he’s never forgotten throughout his professional career.”
    Riley’s parents, Leon, a baseball manager, and Mary Riley, are deceased.