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Former Lakers Greats Come Together to Surprise Pat Riley With News He'll Get Statue

Ryan Phillips

Riley won four NBA championships as head coach of the Lakers.
Riley won four NBA championships as head coach of the Lakers. / Jim Rassol-Imagn Images
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The Los Angeles Lakers are giving Pat Riley a statue outside of Crypto.com Arena and they delivered the message in the best way possible.

On Wednesday, the franchise released a video that showed Magic Johnson and a group of fellow members of the Showtime Lakers teams on a video call revealing to Riley that he would be getting a statue. The Hall of Fame coach and executive was immediately emotional on hearing the news.

This is great:

Riley saying, "I'm just a kid from Schenectady, New York and here I am going to have a statue with the Lakers" was absolutely perfect for the moment.

The 79-year-old Riley was an assistant with the Lakers from 1979 to 1981 under Paul Westhead. Los Angeles won a championship in 1980, then Riley took over as head coach when Westhead was fired in November of 1981. The Lakers won a championship that season and would win three more with Riley in charge.

In all, Riley coached LA for nine seasons from 1981 through the 1989-90 campaign. He went 533-194 (.733), reached the NBA Finals seven times, and won four championships. He is more than deserving of a statue.

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Ryan Phillips
RYAN PHILLIPS

Ryan Phillips is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in digital media since 2009, spending eight years at The Big Lead before joining SI in 2024. Phillips also co-hosts The Assembly Call Podcast about Indiana Hoosiers basketball and previously worked at Bleacher Report. He is a proud San Diego native and a graduate of Indiana University’s journalism program.

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