One of the winningest coaches in NBA history will forever be enshrined in downtown Los Angeles when the Lakers unveil the newest statue on Star Plaza outside Crypto.com Arena.
NBA Hall-of-Famer Pat Riley will join the team’s other legends of the court, including Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Magic Johnson whom he coached to four championships with the Lakers.
Lakers owner Jeanie Buss informed Riley of the team’s plans during a video call Monday with Johnson and Abdul Jabbar, as well as other Laker greats from Riley’s historic tenure.
“Pat is a Lakers icon,” Buss said in a news release Monday. “His professionalism, commitment to his craft, and game preparation paved the way for the coaching we see across the league today.”
She continued by saying that her father, the late Jerry Buss, “recognized Pat’s obsession and ability to take talented players and coalesce them into a championship team,” a blueprint she says the team still follows.
In total, Riley won six championships as a member of the Lakers, four as head coach, another as assistant head coach under Paul Westhead, and one as a player.
He will be the eighth Laker to be immortalized with a statue outside the arena, joining Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar, as well as Elgin Baylor, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, broadcaster Chick Hearn and his former teammate and eventual boss, Jerry West.
Riley became head coach of the Lakers during the 1981-82 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest coaches of all time and an architect of the “Showtime” era.
He’s credited as revolutionizing modern basketball through the fast-break offense, a staple of the Showtime Lakers teams that were must-watch television.
He finished his Lakers coaching career with a 635-241 (.725) combined record. Every team he coached during his nine-season tenure won at least 50 games, including five seasons in which they won over 60. Following the 1989-90 season, Riley was named NBA Coach of the Year.
Following his departure from the Lakers, Riley would spend four years as the head coach of the New York Knicks and 11 seasons as coach of the Miami Heat.
Nowadays, Riley is still a member of the Heat, following in the footsteps of Jerry West by joining the front office, winning two more NBA titles in that role and being named the NBA Executive of the Year in 2011.
No date has been set for when Riley’s statue will be unveiled, but the team says an artist has already been commissioned.