LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Lakers have unveiled a statue of Pat Riley outside their downtown arena to honour the head coach who masterminded their Showtime championship era.
Riley was in attendance Sunday when the Lakers revealed the 8-foot bronze likeness of the Hall of Fame coach in one of his famed Giorgio Armani suits. The statue stands in Star Plaza between statues of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson, the two pillars of the Lakers’ five championships in the 1980s.
Riley was an assistant for that first title before leading the Lakers to the next four, reaching seven NBA Finals in his nine years as their head coach. Riley had never been a head coach before owner Jerry Buss installed the former Lakers player in 1981, but he went on to become one of the greats in his profession.
“The time has gone so fast,” Riley said. “I feel like everything I’ve ever done, I’ve been blessed. I was surrounded by greatness.”
The 80-year-old Riley went on to major successes in New York and Miami, where he still serves as the Heat’s president. But Riley proudly recognizes his NBA roots are in Los Angeles, where he remains a city icon after spending two decades with the Lakers as a player, a broadcaster and a coach. He won six total championship rings in purple and gold.
Abdul-Jabbar and Johnson lauded Riley during the unveiling ceremony, with Abdul-Jabbar reminiscing about a relationship that goes all the way back to their high school days in New York.
“When they say, ‘City of champions,’ we can look at you as one of the architects of that slogan,” Johnson said to Riley. “You’ve done more for us than we could ever thank you for.”
Riley also shared the stage with Lakers governor Jeanie Buss, Heat great Dwyane Wade, and actor Michael Douglas, a longtime friend who adopted Riley’s signature ’80s look for his Academy Award-winning role as banker Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street.” Douglas laughingly told the story of eagerly waiting for Moroccan customs officials to release his Betamax tapes of the Lakers’ NBA Finals games while the actor was trying to avoid spoilers on set shooting “The Jewel of the Nile.”
“Pat really was a guardian angel for this franchise,” Jeanie Buss said. “The epitome of an era, the stylish leader of the Showtime Lakers, Pat did it all with flair and swagger.”
Many other basketball greats who played for Riley watched from the crowd, including James Worthy, Jamaal Wilkes, Norm Nixon, Bob McAdoo, A.C. Green, Kurt Rambis, Byron Scott and Alonzo Mourning.
The inscription on the base of the statue is advice that Riley attributes to his father: “There will come a time when you are challenged, and when that time comes, you must plant your feet. You must stand firm. You must make a point. About who you are, what you do, and where you come from. When that time comes, you do it.”
Riley was awash in memories during his latest return to Los Angeles. He told stories of joining the Lakers as a player after being cut by Portland, winning a ring in 1972 and eventually entering the broadcast booth alongside Chick Hearn, who encouraged him to do the New York Times crossword puzzle each morning to improve his vocabulary.
Riley became an assistant coach and eventually got the head job — and the NBA was never the same. The coach freed Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar to lead the up-tempo, flashy style known as Showtime, and they rolled to championships in 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988.
Riley’s statue is the eighth honouring the Lakers to be installed in Star Plaza, joining Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal — who sent a video praising his former coach in Miami — and Hearn.
“That statue is loaded up with all of us who took that magical journey together,” Riley said.
