The Lakers defeated the hated Boston Celtics in the 1987 NBA Finals, but their coach was standing there. pat riley Cheerful athletes with microphones in hand and enjoying the moment at the Inglewood Forum.

Then Riley declared.

“I guarantee everyone here that we’ll win again next year,” Riley said.

He quickly looked back at the shocked players.

byron scott It was a moment that showed why Riley will be unveiled by the Lakers at Crypto.com Arena on Sunday, and why Los Angeles will face the rival Celtics that day.

Riley won four championships and reached the finals seven times in his nine years as coach of his former franchise.

Scott said Riley deserves to be immortalized among Lakers greats such as Jerry West, Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elgin Baylor and Chick Hearn.

Scott said Showtime was just as important to Riley as it was to Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Cooper and James Worthy.

It’s been almost 20 years since the last team to win back-to-back championships, the 1968-69 Celtics, but “Calculating” Riley still provided the assurance.

“We were all sitting in the forum and he was speaking on stage, and he said, ‘I guarantee everyone here that we’re going to win again next year.’ We were like, ‘What did he just say?’ We’re still trying to have fun with it,” Scott recalled with a laugh.

“When he said that, he immediately turned around and looked at us, and we all said, ‘Wait a minute. Did he just say we’re going to win next year too? We weren’t celebrating this tournament.’ But what he did was subconsciously make us think about that…

“When we all won the championship, we all started working out earlier than usual. I remember going to the track at UCLA and Coop was there. There was magic there. I said, ‘Wait a minute, I’ve never seen these brothers here this early.’ Then I thought, ‘I’m never here this early either.’ It seemed like I had to get ready.

“Like I said, he was thinking about it and calculating, and that was exactly what we needed. We needed that challenge, and that’s why I think he’s one of the greatest coaches of all time. We were able to get it done.”

In fact, the following season, the Lakers defeated the Detroit Pistons in seven games to earn another ring.

Scott, who won three championships with the Lakers, said the reason Riley was able to push the Lakers so far was because his coach “worked hard.”

“When we started flying private planes, there were times when I would get up mid-flight to go to the bathroom in the back and his lights were all I could rely on to get through things,” Scott said. “And I remember it like it was yesterday. He was just a tireless worker and his work ethic was unparalleled as a coach. He was always prepared.”

Worthy said Riley demanded the best from his players because he demanded a lot from himself.

Riley won a championship with the Lakers as a bench player in 1972, but as a coach he led the Lakers to championships in the ’80s.

“He was really honest about what he saw, so he was always good,” Worthy said. “He pushed you to the limit. He understood character and how far you could push certain people. You know how you wring and hang a face towel? He would always pull it down and get another drop out of you. He’d say, ‘Hey, there’s two more drops in you. You didn’t tighten it enough. There’s another drop in there.'” Eventually he got it too.

“He brought us together with integrity and truth and hard work. There was no rest, there was no load management. There was nothing like that. Every game I played with Pat Riley, win or lose, I was ready and ready to go — without a doubt.”

Acquired by the Lakers in 1987, Mychal Thompson played seven seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers and coach Jack Ramsey.

Thompson quickly realized that playing alongside Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar for Riley required more than he had been given thus far.

“Riley’s demands were pretty high,” said Thompson, who won two titles with the Lakers. “You couldn’t play for Pat Riley unless you were a true professional. With him and of course with Magic, his lieutenant, there was no room for stupidity. Obviously, I’ve played with them for years and Jack Ramsey was also a demanding coach. But the Lakers with Riley were on a whole different level. They expected to win a championship. There was no room for slacking off a little bit when you were expecting to win a championship.”

How Riley became a coach is something of Lakers lore.

He was a Lakers commentator along with the venerable Chick Hearn, doing radio and television simulcasting at the time. When Lakers coach Jack McKinney was injured in a bicycle accident in November 1979, assistant coach Paul Westhead took over and hired Riley as his assistant. The Lakers won the championship in 1980.

However, six games into the 1981-82 season, Johnson was not satisfied with his play at Westhead and expressed a desire to be traded. Lakers owner Jerry Buss fired Westhead and replaced him with West, the team’s former coach and scout.

However, at the press conference announcing the announcement, West balked, saying he would assist Riley, who was named interim coach, before becoming the official coach.

Thus began Riley’s rise, taking Showtime to its greatest heights in the ’80s.

Jeanie Buss, Jerry’s daughter and current Lakers governor and minority owner, says this honor for Riley is well-deserved.

“This will be a great way to celebrate one of the most important figures in Lakers and NBA history,” Bass told the Times. “As the stylish leader of the Showtime Lakers, Pat Riley became an icon of an era, and we are thrilled that generations of Angelenos will gather in front of his statue to learn about his accomplishments and understand his central role in our city’s history.”

When Worthy was drafted No. 1 overall by the Lakers in 1982, he recalled his first meeting with Riley. West picked up Worthy at the airport and the two drove to meet Riley for lunch.

“I had never met Pat Riley before, but he came over and I thought, ‘Hey, hey, is this Robert De Niro or is this Pat Riley?'” Worthy said with a laugh. “He was wearing a cool open-collar shirt. His hair was long. I thought, ‘This guy is cool.'” But you also knew from our conversations that he was a great coach and expected the best from you. ”

Riley’s image of standing on the sideline, stylishly dressed in an Armani suit and with his perfectly slicked back hair, is etched deep in the hearts of basketball fans.

His look of authority and confidence earned him the respect and admiration of even the Hollywood audience attending the match.

“So I’m trying to figure out what the Lyles statue will look like,” Worthy said. “It’s got to be an Armani suit with the sidelines or something like that. That’s the best, and his neat hair looks stylish too. That’s for sure.”