Pat Riley is among the few coaches in NBA history to reach superstar status. Standing alongside the likes of Gregg Popovich and Phil Jackson, Pat Riley has always been known to run a tight ship, and being a player under Riley meant, discipline first.
Back in 1994, Riley was associated with the New York Knicks as the head coach. During a regular season game, one of the Knicks players, Charles Smith came into the locker room wearing a suit, as he was listed as being “out” due to an arthritic knee. Chris Herring, now a writer with Sports Illustrated, was a beat writer covering the Knicks back in the 90s and happened to witness the exchange between Riley and Smith.
Writing about the exchange, Herring’s article read,
“When Smith strolled in, Riley stopped writing. ‘Charles, if you could give me one minute tonight – just one – to win a championship, could you do it?’ Riley asked Smith in front of his teammates. Smith wore a surprised look but said he could. ‘Then what in the hell are you doing in that suit?’ Riley asked as the room fell awkwardly silent. Not knowing exactly what to do, Smith went to his locker to throw on his uniform as Riley resumed writing.”
This little exchange portrays the kind of coaching philosophy Riley goes by. Even though Riley looked and dressed like an ‘Armani man’, nothing about the crew chief was fashionable, as he believed in everything being “earned” through blood, sweat and tears.
With many teams such as the Spurs and The Clippers being heavily into ‘load management’, Riley and the Heat still practise the old-school way of doing things. Many recent players such as Bam Adebayo talked about how the Heat practise hard every day, often going so hard that they need proper padding and protective gear to ensure that the players don’t have season-ending injuries.
Riley being at the helm of the Miami Heat, undoubtedly has redefined their culture, as the same mentality continues down the stretch, many years later.
Shaquille O’Neal once detailed how Miami Heat were under Pat Riley
The Miami Heat and Pat Riley are as inseparable as Gregg Popovich and the Spurs are. Before Riley, The Heat were….decent. The franchise and team didn’t necessarily have any identity, they weren’t feared, and they lacked pedigree that the teams like The Bulls, Celtics and Lakers had. But once Riley stepped into the Miami locker room, everything changed, and change often scares people, just ask the Miami Heat players from back then.
Shaquille O’Neal, who joined the team back in 2004, recalls how tense the Heat locker room was. Even though Shaq didn’t fear Riley, he could still sense the pressure that existed due to the legendary coach. Talking about it further in his book Shaq Uncut, O’Neal said,
“I don’t want to call Miami a jail, but everyone was walking around on eggshells. They were all scared of Pat [Riley]. I went in there hoping to give them some life. I wasn’t afraid of anybody—not even the great Pat Riley.”
According to Shaq, Riley had the attitude of a dictator, he wanted this to go his way, and that was the only way. Riley had a rule that his guards had to maintain a body fat percentage of 6% or under, and his centres had to have a body fat percentage of 10% or under. Shaq who had never been that lean, was expected to match the requirements, causing O’Neal to go through hell.
But that wasn’t all, as Shaq wasn’t even allowed to party and enjoy himself to his heart’s content. Riley would often call Shaq into his office, and let him know that he knew exactly where he was last night, often listing down details of places and times. This led Shaq to believe that Riley had a tab on each of his players, even acquiring Riley to spy on his players in his book Shaq Uncut.
