Pat Riley Named to 2008 Hall of Fame

This article was written by George Irvine of Basketball.org. George was a long-time NBA head coach, executive, and player.

This past weekend six men and one woman were inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.  They were Pat Riley, Adrian Dantley, Patrick Ewing, Cathy Rush, Hakeem Olajuwon, William Davidson, and Dick Vitale.  I want to congratulate all of them for this great honor.

I have been fortunate to know almost all of them, some closer than others.  I had wanted to start writing about them sooner, but I have been busy with some family things, so here is a start.

The only inductee I haven’t had personal contact with is Cathy Rush, though I knew her ex-husband (former NBA referee Ed Rush) very well.  When they were married, people often joked about how much better a basketball person Cathy Rush was than Ed.  She had the recognition of being a great coach, and was highly respected in all circles.

The other coach inducted was, of course, Pat Riley.  Pat was a journeyman pro, not overly gifted, but a hard-nosed player who played with intensity. He coached the same way.

He played on the ‘72 Lakers Championship team, won four titles as the coach of the Lakers, got the Knicks to the Finals, and won a Championship with the Miami Heat.  Quite the career, and take it from someone who has coached against him, Pat was a terrific coach.

You really get to know about a coach when you face him in the playoffs.  I coached against Pat as an assistant with the Pacers and as a head coach with the Pistons.

When you play consecutive games against a coach, you get a clear understanding of his system, both offensively and defensively.  But more importantly, you learn to appreciate the adjustments the opposing coach makes to your adjustments.  A great big chess game.  Pat had a well thought out system, and would make terrific adjustments during a series.

I loved the way Riley’s Lakers played. It was definitely different from the style of play he instituted when coaching the Knicks.  Doug Moe had a theory that Riley’s offense with the Knicks was as bad as it was on purpose, so that his players would feel they had to play great defense in order to win.

One of the things on which I totally agree with Riley is that defense starts with pressure on the ball.  Can’t be a good defensive team without pressuring the ball.

When Pat was with the Lakers, he and I had a long conversation about Passing Game.  I ran Passing Game with the Pacers and he was curious about it.  He liked the ball and player movement involved with it.  He didn’t feel he could run it with the Lakers (”one player liked having in the ball in his hands too much”), and his team was older, but there were concepts that he really liked.

On a personal note, while Riley was very, very competitive, I always found him to be a gentleman. Of course, it’s easy to be a sportsman when you win as much as he did.  My first year with the Pacers, we had a very young team.  We had five rookies, at times six rookies, and hardly any players with more than three years experience.

We played hard, but we were not very good. I think Riley was the only coach all year long who, after we upset his Lakers, complimented our play.

All the other coaches, after we won, would talk about how badly their teams played, like that was the only reason they could have lost to the lowly Pacers.  Pat, however, was gracious. He denied his team played poorly, but instead said we played really well: “Give them credit.”

He was equally gracious after my Pistons team lost to his Heat team in the playoffs in 2001, pointing out how hard we played, the fact we lost our starting center before the season began, and that Grant Hill got hurt during the playoffs.

I am very happy for Riley on his being named to the Hall of Fame.  It is a well-deserved honor.