Lakers planning Pat Riley statue

The Los Angeles Lakers are commissioning a statue of Pat Riley, who played for and coached some of the franchise's greatest squads in the 1970s and '80s.

"Pat is a Lakers icon," team owner Jeanie Buss said in a statement Monday. "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 '80s is still the blueprint for the organization today: an entertaining and winning team."

The statue is scheduled to be completed in 2026 and will sit in Star Plaza outside the main entrance to Crypto.com Arena. The locale already hosts seven statues of other famous Lakers icons: Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O'Neal, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Chick Hearn, and Kobe Bryant.

Riley, now 79 years old and president of the Miami Heat's basketball operations, was behind the bench for the Lakers' Showtime era in the 1980s. He led the organization to four NBA championships in seven seasons and made two other trips to the Finals in that stretch while coaching future Hall of Famers such as Abdul-Jabbar, Johnson, Michael Cooper, and James Worthy.

He was also an assistant on Paul Westhead's Lakers coaching staff that won the title in 1980.

In 1988, he became the first coach since Boston Celtics legend Red Auerbach in 1965-66 to win back-to-back titles - fulfilling a guarantee he made a year prior at the Lakers' 1987 championship parade.

Riley also won a championship as a player with L.A. in 1971-72, his second season with the team amid a five-and-a-half-year stint. The shooting guard was the club's most-used reserve in the 1972 Finals against the New York Knicks, playing 16.2 minutes per game and averaging five points in five contests to help the Lakers snap an 18-year championship drought.