SPORT NEWS: Pat Riley to be honored with statue outside Crypto.com Arena by Lakers.giang

The Los Angeles Lakers announced Monday that Pat Riley—who spent nine seasons as the team’s head coach in the 1980s and led the organization to four titles and seven trips to the NBA Finals—will be honored with a statue outside of the Crypto.com Arena on Star Plaza.

“Pat is a Lakers icon,” controlling governor and president Jeanie Buss said in a statement. “His professionalism, commitment to his craft and game preparation paved the way for the coaching we see across the league today. My dad [Jerry Buss] recognized Pat’s obsession and ability to take talented players and coalesce them into a championship team. The style of basketball Pat and the Lakers created in the 1980s is still the blueprint for the organization today: An entertaining and winning team.”

Riley, 79, has had one of the most successful and comprehensive careers in NBA history.

He started as a player, appearing in nine seasons for the San Diego Rockets, Lakers and Phoenix Suns, winning one title. He then transitioned to coaching, spending three seasons as an assistant for the Lakers before taking over as the head honcho.

In a coaching career that spanned three decades and three franchises (also the New York Knicks and Miami Heat), Riley posted a 1,210-694 record and five NBA titles.

He wasn’t done there, transitioning into a front-office role as Miami’s team president. Under his watch, the Heat have added players like LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler throughout the years, winning a pair of NBA championships during the LeBron years.

His most famous team, however, is undoubtedly the Showtime Lakers he coached in the 1980s, headlined by Hall of Famers in Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy and Michael Cooper. Those teams famously battled with Larry Bird’s Boston Celtics, creating a rivalry that helped move the NBA into its popularity of today.

Eventually, the Lakers, Celtics and Bad Boy Detroit Pistons were replaced by Michael Jordan’s Bulls, who won six titles in eight seasons during the 1990s. But Riley’s Lakers are one of the most important teams in NBA history, and it was only a matter of time before he was honored in such a manner by the organization.