TTM Triumph #33: Pat Riley

The successful return featured in this post has got to be one of my biggest yet. Were I to make a list of some sort, it would easily be in the top three.

Being a devout Trail Blazers fan growing up, I certainly didn't have any love for the Lakers, but even from a young age I had a great deal of respect for Pat Riley as a person. In fact, his book "Show Time" was not only the second basketball related book I ever read (after "Breaks of the Game"), but it was the second sports book that I ever read.

A big part of why I have always liked him so much, comes from reading an interview of his when I was around 9 or 10, in which he discussed the Texas Western team that beat his Kentucky team for the NCAA championship in 1966. Even that early in life I was greatly impressed by the reverence in which he spoke of that Miners team and it's players. You just don't see that kind of respect given by a player on the losing side to the team that beat them all that often. And of course, over the years he has continued to discuss that Texas Western team with the highest regard in countless books and documentaries.

Even if there wasn't all that, just getting a successful return back from someone who, as a player, coach, and executive has been able to amass ten championship rings is pretty darn cool. So, many thanks go out to Mr. Riley.


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