Congratulations!

I've been a fan of Miami Heat coach and president Pat Riley ever since he was coaching Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and the Lakers - in the Showtime era in the mid- to late-80s -- and my friend Andrew and I were Lakers fans. I liked Coach for his style, his authoritative demeanor, and - with the Knicks and Heat - his defense-oriented teams and his ability to get outstanding performances out of so-so players. (He also won my praise for vetoing a proposal from the Heat organization that the team have a new indoor arena built to play north of Miami in the Broward County suburbs, where the Dolphins and the Marlins already play. “This is the MIAMI Heat,” Riley supposedly said.) After I moved to New York and became a Knicks fan - and Riley followed Rick Pitino as Knicks coach - I was still a supporter. After Riley left for the Heat, I stuck with the Knicks - under Jeff Van Gundy - instead of archrival Miami- but rooted for Miami and its veteran-laden team in its championship run a couple of years ago. Riley and I have also crossed paths, earlier in his life. He grew up and played high school basketball in Schenectady, NY, part of my first dissertation research site (Albany-Troy-Schenectady, NY), where people occasionally spoke of him. And Riley played college ball down Interstate 64 at the University of Kentucky, for Coach Rupp, and Vincent and I watched Riley (played by an actor, of course) when his team and Rupp were the de facto villains, in their NCAA finals game against Texas Western (now Texas A&M), in the movie that came out a couple of years, "Glory Road." Riley and Patrick Ewing (his de facto player coach on the Knicks - the two of them are pictured above back in their Knicks days)(before I met him Vincent wore Patrick Ewing sneakers) were selected earlier this week for the basketball Hall of Fame (physically located in Springfield, MA, where my friend Chris and I visited when I lived in Albany and Schenectady (down the road from Riley's high school at the Stardust Motor Inn). (Riley is rumored to be on his way to retirement after he chooses the Heat's lottery pick. Ewing was an assistant coach of the Houston Rockets, where he worked for a while with Van Gundy, and is now an assistant coach with Van Gundy's brother, former Heat coach Stan Van Gundy, in Orlando.). Congrats, Coach Riley and Coach Ewing!