FanNation - The Republic of Sport

What a joke. Every coach should be so lucky as to be handed a pre-packaged NBA Champion. With Jabbar, Magic, Worthy, Wilkes, and Cooper, they could have gotten any bum off the street to coach this team, and today he'd be a Hall of Famer.

...in rileys defense (which you will almost never see from me), i admired his ability to take the players he had and play to their strengths, instead of forcing unsuitable players into a rigid system. when he had run-and-gun showtime talent, they ran. then he comes east to the knicks and plays tough, halfcourt, in-your-face eastern basketball. then he moves to the heat and takes a couple of stars and a cast of role players and wins there too. his flaw was in blowing up things in miami so irresponsibly by letting all the "glue" players leave. then he steps out of the way, but when van gundy started winning, riley pushed him out of the way so he could hog the limelight again. low class. and lately some of his moves have been downright loony......

he was just lucky and got the best players riley is only going to stay gm or something till the heat are good again and then this new coach is going to come in the morning for practice and riley is in his seat riley:"your fired" *trump hand motion*

Riley knew how to use the best of players, something many coaches do not have.

does ANYBODY know when MICHAEL JORDAN is getting inducted to the hall of fame?

Privateer has a point; there is a reason the coaching position became open; apparently, former coach was NOT allowing Magic to do what he did best. Riley was either smart enough or lazy enough to let showtime become showtime.

One of the things people remember about Magic is him playing center in the final game of the finals his rookie year, the coach? Paul Westhead, who went to success in the college ranks after Magic had him ousted, the beginning of players being more important than coaches. The Lakers would have won just as much without Riley. You or I could've coached some of those teams. Players playing, simple as that. Riley isn't a bad coach, but he got lucky. With the Lakers, with Patrick Ewing, though Riley never got the championship with him, and then with Wade and Shaq in Miami. How long did it take him to screw that up?

Previous coach not allowing Magic to do what he does best? They won the championship. That wasn't enough for Magic??

I wonder if Paul Westhead will be in attendance?

Anybody who thinks Riley is a bad coach has no idea about basketball. We are talking about one of the top coaches of all time, without question. He might play dirty, but he gets the job done. He took a joke of a team in New York and transformed then in one season, with players nobody had ever heard of (Stars, Mason). Difference with Riley if you compare him to Phil Jackson, for example, is that Riley can adapt to what he has. Showtime with the Lakers, Beat-em-up with the Knicks. Great coach, well deserved. And yeah, what he did to Van Gundy was flat out wrong, but they never would've won the title with Stan in the mix.

oh by the way, many coaches "got lucky" with Ewing, none of them could win a game with him before Riley stepped in. Funny how that works don't you think? And yes Lakers were great, but there were a few decent teams back in the day like the Celtics, so stop hating and give the man his due. Without him Miami would still be a low class organisation who never would have won anything.

ELIGIBILITY
Candidates must meet the following requirements in order to be eligible for Enshrinement into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (hereafter BHOF):

Player: A player must be fully retired for five years before being eligible for Enshrinement. He/she may then be considered for Enshrinement in the sixth year of retirement. Should a player come out of retirement for a short period of time, as defined by the BHOF, his/her case and eligibility for Enshrinement shall be reviewed on an individual basis.

Coach: A coach must be either fully retired for five years or, if still an active coach, have coached as either a fulltime assistant or head coach on the high school and/or college and/or professional level for a minimum of 25 years. That person will then be considered for Enshrinement in the sixth year of retirement or 26th year of active coaching.

Hakeem Olajuwon was announced this year too, so I can't wait to know when he be introduced... and by who.

lmitchell - what's your point ??
So, you're listing the eligibility requirements.
Riley fulfills them.
So what are you trying to prove?
- JL

Hllywd and others - you need to look at the big picture.
Basketball Hall of Famers are chosen for their overall contribution to the game - in addition to individual success.
We all know Riley has had enormous success as coach. You guys are hating on him because you claim that he was lucky to have top players.
However, you're forgetting that RIley was also a star college player at Kentucky and an NBA player himself - with the Lakers. He was not a star at the NBA level, but he has a lifetime of contribution to basketball through all these levels.
His coaching success is the icing on the cake. Even if he did get lucky, the fact remains that he was a player as well as a coach, so his luck as coach is just one factor in his overall resume.
- JL

LMitchell - in case you didn't read my post above, Riley _does_ fulfill the Hall of Fame requirements.
Even if he is not retired as a coach, he did retire as a player, so he fulfills that requirement.
Although he's getting in because of the combination of his contributions as player and coach, his fulfilling the player retirement clause is enough for the requirement.
The same holds true for Phil Jackson.
- JL

He was a clutch shooter back in the day.

grossedout9, I live in San Francisco, have worked with many gay guys, and I am no homophobe, but I'm not interested in seeing pictures of guys making out. Why the picture? If you're trying to make a point, I'm missing it.

as long as we're on the topic....

in my research of basketball statistics, i came across an interesting index that calculates a player's chances of being inducted into the HOF based on a variety of factors. here are some VERY interesting examples.

Dirk and Nash have a higher probability than Scottie Pippen.
Vince Carter, J-Kidd, and T-Mac have a higher probability than John Stockton.
Gilbert Arenas has a 20% higher chance than Tony Parker.
Allen Iverson has the same chance as Kobe and Shaq.
Mutumbo has a 0.73% chance of getting in (half as likely as Shareef Abdur Rahim).