How Pat Riley Inspired Doc Rivers To Get Into Coaching

Rivers says the Heat team president has been his biggest coaching influence

Philadelphia 76ers coach Doc Rivers had some kind words for Miami Heat team president Pat Riley before their organizations met for Game 1 of their Eastern Conference second-round series. 

At the Monday morning shootaround, Rivers said Riley influenced him to become a coach. Rivers learned while he was a player for the New York Knciks under Riley in the 1990s. 

“I had no thoughts of coaching until I played for Pat Riley and the way he did it,” Rivers said. “I thought ‘Wow, that’s pretty cool’. He was the one who when I did TV for three years, every day he would call me or challenge me. When are you gonna get in the fray? He would belittle me! Literally, because I did the Miami-New York series, and every day, he got me. I thought he was wrong, he ended up being right.”

Both were recently named among the NBA's top 15 coaches. 

“He inspired me, man,” Rivers said. “Just his speeches, his belief, and conditioning, I was always in pretty good shape anyways so he has you believing that you’re different than everybody else in the league and back then, he had a foul every possession in the first five minutes rule because they’ll stop calling them. You can’t do that anymore…It’s his spirit and the way he approaches the job that sets him apart.”

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