Pat Riley is regarded as one of the greatest coaches in NBA history. This story certainly helps explain why.
Riley won five championships as a head coach — his latest coming in 2006 as head coach of the Miami Heat. It was during that series that Riley’s Heat came back from down 2-0 against the Dallas Mavericks to win four straight and claim the title.
ESPN’s True Hoop did an oral history of the Heat’s comeback in the series. Included in it was this fantastic anecdote of a motivational tactic Riley employed as his team, up 3-2 in the series, headed to Dallas for Game 6, where they eventually won the title.
Here’s how then-Heat center Shaquille O’Neal recalled it:
O’Neal: [Riley] said: “OK, we’re going back to f—— Dallas, and I’m checking everybody’s luggage. We [are] only going to play one game. Whoever has more than one f—— outfit, you ain’t f—— coming on the road.” So when we got there, he actually checked our bags. Pat Riley. He was at the f—— gate checking everybody’s bag. … And there was one guy, not a player, but another guy that had more than one outfit, and f—— Pat made him go and catch a commercial flight. He really did. It was like a video guy. Pat was serious. Like, “I told you this was gonna happen, motherf—–!” And he was just like a different, mean. … Not mean, but he was like a different energetic Pat. “We gonna pack one f—— bag. They’re done.”
The story sounds funny, as does the tactic. But you know what? It worked. The Heat knew that they had to win Game 6 because if they had lost, the Mavs would have had the momentum heading into Game 7, which was at home for them. So Miami came out playing like they needed to end the series, and they did.
Hey, we’ve learned over time that Riley’s motivational tactics don’t always work, but this one certainly seemed to, and you have to give credit to the man for being so unwavering about his decisions.
