Pat Riley Biography

1945-

American basketball coach

Currently president and head coach for the Miami Heat basketball team, Pat Riley has been an NBA coach for more than 20 years. He started as a coach for the Los Angeles Lakers before moving to the New York Knicks, and finally to the Miami Heat. His NBA regular season win-loss record in 2002 stood at a remarkable 1,085-502. Those 1,085 wins were second only to coach Lenny Wilkens. His record of 155 post-season wins was bettered only by Phil Jackson in the history of the NBA. Riley's 255 postseason games are an all-time NBA record. During the 1996-97 season, Riley was named one of the Top 10 Coaches of All-Time by a panel of sports journalists.

Riley's other accomplishments include 16 divisional championships, eight conference championships, and a total of four NBA championships. Named NBA coach of the year three times, Riley is the only NBA coach ever to have received this honor as coach of three different teams. From 1982 to 2001, Riley coached 19 playoffs in a row, a league record. He is also tied for the most playoffs for one coach. Riley has also coached nine NBA All-Star games. In addition, Riley has won 50 games in a single season and NBA record-breaking 17 times. He has taken his teams to victory 60 times in one season seven times, at least once with each of the three NBA teams he has coached.

Pat Riley

Riley reached a major milestone in the 2000-01 season when he became fastest the coach or manager to reach 1,000 wins—not just in the NBA, but in all four of the professional sports in North America.