Laker Greats Praise Pat Riley As Hall Of Famer Hopes For 10th Championship

Can Riley reach title number 10?

Winning one NBA title is ostensibly hard enough but for the great Pat Riley, there are loftier frontiers. 

He is going for his 10th total as both as a player, coach and president of a franchise. Riley is still at the top of his game, even at the ripe old age of 78 and it’s honestly impressive at the career he has built. Laker fans will remember him as the coach who took the Showtime Lakers over the top. Riley's pure intensity helped drive the team to multiple titles during the 1980s.

He brought that over to the Miami Heat as their head coach and for the last decade plus, the president of the team. Riley constructed this current version of the Miami Heat with the hopes of bringing a title back to South Beach and he’s gotten close to doing so of late. Including this season, Miami has reached the NBA Finals two out of the last four years and they have made the Eastern Conference Finals three times in that span. His passion for the game of basketball is still there and his former players have even noticed, writes Josh Peter of USA Today.

"And he wants to in the worst way win one more," Magic Johnson, the Hall of Famer who helped lead the Showtime Lakers, said of Riley. "He hasn’t changed. He’s still intense, I can see it on his face."

Riley is a basketball purist at heart. His competitive nature brings out the best in the organizations that he works for and it shows in the success on court. 

"He’s the architect of that organization," former Riley assistant Bill Bertka said of the Heat. "He’s the heart and soul, and it’s evident from what’s transpiring."

Hall of Fame Lakers guard-turned-Los Angeles Clippers executive Jerry West also weighed in. West won the 1972 title with Riley when both were Lakers players, and then won five more with Riley serving as head or assistant coach and West was in the front office.

"You can see his fingerprints over all the stuff they’re doing down there," West told Peter. "I mean, [the Heat are] never going to quit and they’re never going to die... And if you look everywhere he went, he was very much a defensive-minded guy and that’s part of his personality, by the way."

Laker fans should be rooting for Riley to get his 10th title with Miami, if not only to support the man that helped build them into a dynasty. Riley is as much a part of Laker history as some of the players that have worn the purple and gold. 

I know they were the 8th seed but not sure why people are surprised at the Heat. Including this year, they have reached the ECF three of the last four seasons and have made the NBA Finals twice now

— Matthew Levine (@Levine1445) May 30, 2023

Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra even let slip that Riley still has certain feelings for the Boston Celtics so he makes sure that the entire team does as well. If that doesn't get you to still root for Riley, I'm not sure that will. 

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