By titli basu | March 14, 2014 0 Comments

Net Worth: $80 million

Career/Profession: Basketball Coach, Executive

Age: 69

“If you have a positive attitude and constantly strive to give your best effort, eventually you will overcome your immediate problems and find you are ready for greater challenges.

-Pat Riley

Patrick James Riley is a professional American basketball executive and a former coach and basketball player in the NBA. He is known to be one of the greatest NBA coaches of all time who has served as the head coach of five champion teams. Currently he is the tem president of the Miami Heat. He was awarded the prestigious position of the NBA Coach of the Year thrice. Recently, Pat Riley won the 2012 and 2013 NBA championships as Miami Heat bagged the title. In fact, Pat Riley is the only American sports figure to have won a championship as a player, as a coach and as an executive. He also received the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award in June, 2012.

“Its basketball, man!”

Born in Rome, New York, Riley started playing basketball at Linton High School under coaches Walt Przybylo, Bill Rapavy and Ed Catino. During that time, the school game between Linton High School and NYC’s Power memorial, where Linton High school won by 74-68, will always be remembered for Pat Riley.

Even during his college days at the University of Kentucky, Riley was a versatile player and was named with several honorary titles, right from First Team All SEC, All NCAA Tournament Team, NCAA Regional Player of the Year, SEC Player of the Year and AP Third Team All American.

Pat Riley was selected by the San Diego Rockets during the first round of the NBA draft and was also selected by the Dallas Cowboys during the 11^th round of the draft. Nevertheless, he joined the San Diego Rockets and later was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers but was immediately traded off to the Los Angeles Lakers. Despite all this he remained a not-so-special player and retired soon after.

“Life isn’t over yet”

Playing career over? So what? Pat Riley returned to the NBA in 1977 as a broadcaster for the Los Angeles Lakers. After the team’s head coach was injured in a fatal accident, Riley’s role transformed from the broadcaster to one of the assistant coaches of the team. Riley led the team to four consecutive NBA finals. During his tenure as a coach, the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA championship, becoming the first team in 19 years to repeat as champions. Riley stepped down as the coach of the team after they lost to the Phoenix Suns in 1990. He was still named the NBA Coach of the Year.

After his stint with the Lakers Riley took up the job of television commentator, followed by the position of the head coach of the New York Knicks in 1991. He led the team to the best regular season records and was named the Coach of the Year for the second time. The team, although, lost in seven games in the NBA Finals in 1994. So Riley resigned from New York Knicks and joined the Miami Heat as their head coach.

Though his joining the Miami Heat stirred a round of controversy, it all got cleared later on. In 1997, Miami Heat defeated Riley’s old team New York Knicks and Riley became the Coach of the Year for the third time. Few years later in 2003, Riley again stepped down as the coach of The Heat and concentrated on his duties as the general manager, after he was disappointed with the team’s performance. However, he shocked everyone when he resumed his role as a coach in 2005. But he again decided to step down after the team’s miserable performance.

Life beyond Sports

Riley published a book called Showtime: Inside the Lakers’ Breakthrough Season, in 1988 which became a bestseller in New York. His name was also associated with a video game called Pat Riley Basketball. In 1993, Riley published his second book The Winner Within: A Life Plan for Team Players which was again a New York bestseller.

We had also seen Pat Riley modeling at an Armani show, as was obvious because of his close bonding with Giorgio Armani.

Apart from this, Pat Riley is a well known motivational speaker around the world. He charges as far as $ 50, 000 for each speaking engagement.

Assets

More recently Pat Riley was in news when he sold off his Waterfront Coral Gables house for $16.75 million, which he had bought in 1996 for $6.3 million. The five bedrooms, eight bathroom mansion stretches wide across 2 acres of land in the Gables Estate Club. The mansion boasts of 12, 856 sq. ft. of living space, a media room, a wine cellar, a well stocked library with a fireplace, a pool so huge that it can host an entire franchise. What more? This magnificent palace also houses a private sandy beach and dock. The whopping amount seems quite legitimate for this beautiful bungalow.

With this we wrap up this article. Pat Riley is probably one of the greatest contributors to basketball in America, be it as a player or a coach or the president of the team. We wish him luck for all his future endeavors!