Miami Heat's Pat Riley Was Among The First Fans Of NBA Analytics

Riley was a big fan of analytics before it became a trend

According to Sports Illustrated’s Chris Herring, Miami Heat team president Pat Riley was a huge fan of basketball analytics in the early 1990s.

“Pat [Riley] was a huge believer in analytics even in the early 90s. Even the way he watched film was different in the early `90s than most people do now,” said Herring in The ReWind Space on Twitter Spaces while discussing his book Blood in the Garden. “It’s similar to what we think now, but Pat was more or less using PER in 1991. He was using a computer in 1991 to have the Knicks chart things such as closes outs, boxouts, charges taken, and player efficacy.”

Herring added in a tweet that “I think he [Pat Riley] was just forward thinking from an information-gathering standpoint. PER, box-outs, close-outs, charges drawn, etc. Watching opposing film on team's clutch-time play calls.”

Since Riley joined the Heat, the moved has turned out to be beneficial for the organization. The Heat have been to the Finals six times under Riley and won three of them.

"He went to Miami for that contract when he was already highest paid head coach in the league," Herring said. "In a time where the Knicks were already offering to double his salary that was already the highest in the league. It obviously not a finesse because can look at the track record of the two franchises since then, and say it was worth it. However, it crazy how far he went and what he asked for and how much of a pioneer he was, I do not even think you can pioneer because he is the only that has gotten what he asked for.”

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Landon Buford is a contributor to Inside The Heat. He can be reached at landon.buford@att.net