Miami Heat president Pat Riley awarded Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award – NBA News
The National Basketball Coaches Association has chosen Pat Riley as this year’s recipient of the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award.
Riley is the fifth person to receive the award which celebrates the life of Daly, a former coach of the Detroit Pistons and the U.S Olympics Dream Team that won gold in the 1992 Barcelona games. Tommy Heinsohn got the award in
2009, Jack Ramsay and Tex Winter in 2010 and Lenny Wilkens received the honour in 2011.
“"This is not an award. This is something somebody bestows on you. I'm very honoured that the coaches association would do this,” said Riley.
Riley has been associated with the NBA for 40 years now, first as a player and then as a coach and executive. He was the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers in the late 80’s and faced Chuck Daly and his Detroit Pistons on two
occasions in the NBA Finals.
Riley has won championship rings with the Lakers and Miami Heat. He has 1210 wins and 21 playoff appearances as a head coach.
He was head coach of the Miami Heat when they won the NBA championship in 2006 and now serves as the President of the team.
"When it came to coaching, Chuck Daly always felt that Pat Riley was the best of the best. Chuck was a great admirer of Pat's uncompromising intensity, class and style,” said Rick Carlisle, head coach of the Dallas Mavericks who
was an assistant coach to Daly with the 1992 Olympic team.
Both Riley and Daly had developed a strong bond of friendship in the later part of their lives. After Daly was diagnosed with Cancer in 2009, he lived the remaining of his life in South Florida and Riley spent a lot of time with
him.
Riley’s Miami Heat are once again in the NBA Finals this year and have taken a commanding 3-1 lead in the series against the Oklahoma City Thunder. If they win the championship, it will be Riley’s 8th NBA Title as a
player, assistant, head coach or executive. That will put him in a very unique club.
“Well, for us as a team, he means a lot. You know, he put together this team, and we just look at his resume. We look at his experience either as a player, as a coach or as an executive. He's done some great things,” said Miami
Heat forward LeBron James.
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