Riley’s influence is felt as Knicks hire Fizdale
Ex-Heat assistant built experience during Miami stint
MIAMI — Pat Riley’s influence apparently continues to resonate with the New York Knicks more than two decades after he resigned there as coach to take stewardship of the Miami Heat.
Riley emerged as a talking point Tuesday at Madison Square Garden when former Heat assistant coach David Fizdale was introduced as the Knicks’ new coach.
While Fizdale’s closeness with Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has been wellchronicled, Fizdale said he spoke with Riley in advance of signing on with the Knicks as the replacement for Jeff Hornacek.
“Pat, I would say, probably spoke to me as much as anybody and took the time to check on me and give me advice through this process,” said Fizdale, who left the Heat in the 2016 offseason to become coach of the Memphis Grizzlies, a position he held until early this past season. “No one was more happy when he got the news about this, to see one of his guys here and coming back and doing this, taking this challenge.
“I’m sure, right now, he’s pretty proud.”
Following nearly a decade of success with the Los Angeles Lakers, Riley coached the Knicks from 1991 to 1995, his teams winning at least 50 games in each of those seasons. He then departed amid charges of tampering from the Knicks, a settlement reached that led to a cash payment and the forwarding of a first-round pick by the Heat.
Knicks President Steve Mills also noted the Riley influence in the process.
“I spent a lot of time talking to Pat about this hire,” Mills said, “and asked him a lot of questions: What did he think David learned from his experiences in Miami to his experiences in Memphis and then getting fired.
“And Pat had some real insight into what David left in Miami and planned on instilling in Memphis, what went wrong, and how he came back to talk about, ‘How do I fix this again?’ ”
Fizdale, 43, served as a Heat assistant coach from 2008 to 2016, having previously worked in the Heat’s video department. He returned to AmericanAirlines Arena following his Nov. 27 dismissal by the Grizzlies to visit people with whom he worked during the 2012 and 2013 NBA championships.
“And Pat was very, very open about some of the conversations he had with David,” Mills said. “And again, it gave us a lot of faith and felt good about him having learned from that experience.”
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