Miami Heat's key pieces evoke memories of the L.A. Lakers of old

The makeup of the Miami Heat's key pieces evoke memories of the L.A. Lakers of old
You can’t blame Pat Riley if his Heat making the NBA Finals caused him to feel a little déjà vu.
A 37-year-old Riley coached a 23-year-old star guard and a 35-year-old veteran center to The Finals in 1982.
It’s 2006, and while Riles might have a little bit of gray adorning his slicked-back coif, he once again has a 24-year-old star guard and 34-year-old veteran center on a team of his that is playing for the Larry O’Brien trophy.
The coach is hoping that Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal can lift the Miami Heat over the Dallas Mavericks the same way that Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar carried his Los Angeles Lakers back in the day.
“There's a bond there, there's no doubt,” Riley said of Wade and O’Neal. “I think there's just so much respect there for each other, and it also works on the court.”
Like Abdul-Jabbar and Johnson, O’Neal and Wade harbor respect for Riley, the same intense X’s-and-O’s guy he was back when Ronald Reagan was in office, but Flash and Shaq are hardly carbon copies of Magic and Kareem.
By 1982, his third season in the league, Earvin “Magic” Johnson already had a collegiate national championship and an NBA championship under his belt. At 6-foot-9 and 255 pounds, he was a point guard the size of a power forward and the toast of the league, having downed the Philadelphia 76ers in the ’80 Finals and garnered the series MVP in the process.
He did not win Rookie of the Year -- that trophy rests in Larry Bird’s possession -- but his ability to play all five positions on the court led to rings in back-to-back years as a member of Michigan State and the Lakers.

Wade, a 6-foot-4, 212-pound combo-guard, finished his third NBA campaign sixth in MVP voting. Where Magic had size, Dwyane has quickness. His baseline-to-baseline abilities led his Marquette team to the Final Four and his Miami squad to three straight playoff appearances.
During Marquette’s tournament run, Wade dropped a triple-double on Kentucky in the Elite Eight, joining Johnson as one of only four players to ever record a triple-dip in the NCAA tourney (the others were Cincinnati’s Oscar Robertson and Utah’s Andre Miller).
He has not tasted success quite as fast as Johnson, however. While Johnson and Bird were the featured gems of their ‘79 rookie class, Wade was initially overshadowed by fellow ’03 picks LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony.
It was James that went No. 1 overall and won the Rookie of the Year, and it was Anthony’s Syracuse Orange that won the NCAA title by taking out the Kansas squad that bested Wade and Marquette in the Final Four
But just as Johnson won on the biggest stages, putting him slightly ahead of Bird in the race for bragging rights in the neophyte stages of their careers, Wade has outperformed James and Anthony in the playoffs thus far.
While James did not make the playoffs until this season, and Anthony’s Nuggets have gone 3-12 in the three playoff series he has played in, Wade's is a different story. As a rookie, he helped lead Miami to its first playoff series win in four years. Last year, he reached Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals and was arguably a rib injury away from beating the Pistons. And now he sits just four victories away from his first NBA championship.
Three years into each of their pro tenures, Johnson and Wade shared the same responsibility on their teams -- Be a playmaker. And lucky for both of them, they had a dominant, seasoned man in the middle making it a pleasure to go to work every day.
The Kareem Abdul-Jabbar that played with Magic in ’82 and the Shaquille O’Neal that plays with Dwyane in ’06 are comparable in the fact that both players were enjoying the latter stages of brilliant, shining careers.
Abdul-Jabbar was in his 13th season when the 1982 Finals tipped off. His accolades -- Rookie of the Year, two-time scoring champion, two-time NBA champion with one Finals MVP and six league MVPs -- were staggering.
O’Neal is in his 14th season and he too was ROY and a two-time scoring champ, but he differs from Abdul-Jabbar slightly: Shaq is a three-time NBA champion with three Finals MVPs and one league MVP.
At 7-foot-2, 267 pounds, Abdul-Jabbar seemed to be all appendages, his lengthy arms and legs sprouting from his jersey like tree branches. His patented move on offense, the “skyhook,” relied on agility and grace.
Shaq, meanwhile, with his 7-foot-1, 325-pound frame, is all tree trunks. He uses his meaty arms and powerful legs to help him execute his go-to move on offense, a move that doesn’t have a melodic nickname that can be placed in quotation marks. O’Neal’s bread-and-butter is a back-you-down, put-the-leather-in-the-iron-with-ferocity exercise every time down the court (although he has had to tone down the physical play in recent years to stay out of foul trouble and stay on the court).
No matter the method, the results for Abdul-Jabbar and O’Neal were the same. They were truly elite members of the game whose production was matched only by their consistency.
But, like an aging Abdul-Jabbar needed Johnson to get back to the highest level and often deferred to his pupil’s rapid development as a marquee player, O’Neal needs Wade to reach his goal of winning another championship.
Comparing his current crew with his tandem of old, Riley said: “I mean, Magic and Kareem I think is equal, but I also had (James) Worthy and (Byron Scott) and (Michael) Cooper and (Bob) McAdoo. You talk about a great team, but I think that they're similar. So I've been very fortunate.
“I wouldn't say that one (duo) is better than the other. I love those guys in L.A. I want them to talk to me when I get old. These guys (in Miami) will always talk to me because I'm paying them (laughter).”
This is Riley’s ninth trip to The Finals -- seven with the Lakers, one with the Knicks and now one with the Heat. He has four championships as a head coach thus far, and if he is to earn his fifth by beating the Mavericks, he will need Wade and O’Neal to accomplish what Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar did back in 1982.
And, if they do, it will be déjà vu all over again.

Lakers 1887

When Pat Riley guaranteed his Lakers would repeat as NBA champs in 1988, he was controversial, calculated and, most of all, prophetic
Before they had finished popping the champagne corks or had time to dry the bubbly residue from their smiling faces, the 1987 NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers were brought down to earth with one declarative sentence by their erudite coach.
“I guarantee you we will repeat as champions next year.”
Pat Riley said it, right there in the Forum dressing room that night of June 14, 1987, as his team was celebrating its six-game conquest of arch-enemy Boston in the Finals. No NBA team had repeated as champions in 18 years. Not the great Celtics teams of John Havlicek or Larry Bird; not the mesmerizing Knick teams of Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe or even the fabulous Sixers teams of Julius Erving and Moses Malone. But, in the euphoria of the moment, Riley made his promise.
Talk about putting a damper on a good party.
“We hated it when he said it the first time,” Magic Johnson recalled. “We felt like we couldn’t really enjoy what we’d just won.”
Months passed, a new season started, and Riley’s bold proclamation remained about as popular with the troops as a three-hour practice on an off day in the Big Apple.
“He’d sent us the letter he always sent over the summer,” Johnson said, “and it was the same thing: The pressure’s on. He talked about how nobody has repeated since the Celtics in ’69 and this was our chance to separate ourselves from everybody, to become known as one of the all-time great teams. It was like, ‘Dang, what’s he doing to us? Why can’t he let us feel good about this before focusing in on next season?'”
Riley, a calculating man who rarely does anything without a purpose, wasn’t whistling in the dark. The guarantee was born of reflection, not emotion.
“I know a lot of people thought I was saying it in jest at the time,” he said. “What happened was, I looked back and read articles about the common denominator in why teams couldn’t win it again. What I found was that coaches, players, management, everyone connected to the organization would not take responsibility. They’d say, ‘We can do it if we’re healthy, if we’re unselfish,’ and so on. They were rationalizing, giving themselves a crutch to fail.
“I didn’t want to do that. So I knew exactly what I was going to say when they put the microphone in front of me in the dressing room that night. It was premeditated.”
Having dropped his bomb in the afterglow of victory, Riley repeated his words at the parade in downtown Los Angeles the following day, just in case anybody missed it.
The players rolled their eyes with expression that said, “Why is that crazy Riley doing this to us?”
The mood hadn’t changed much once the 1987-88 season opened. The Lakers privately hadn’t forgiven their coach for putting the onus on them with the most-publicized guarantee since Joe Namath at Super Bowl III.
In an effort to bring everyone together, the coach called a team meeting. But first, he needed an ally. Riley knew where to run. He sought out the floor general.
“All he needed was one of the guys to get on board with him,” Johnson said. “So Riles pulled me aside and said, ‘This is going to set you aside from (Larry) Bird. He hasn’t won two titles in a row.’ He knew me. He knew all I needed to hear was Larry, and I was gonna jump.”
Riley, the master psychologist, was working the no-respect angle for all it was worth.
“In ’88, nobody was even giving us consideration for being a great, great, great team, possibly the greatest of all time,” he said. “I told the guys, ‘Until you win back-to-back, they’re not going to do that. If the criteria for greatness is we have to win back-to-back, we have to take responsibility for the challenge.’
“I said, ‘We’re not going to back in. We’re not going to give ourselves excuses for failing.’ I wanted to put the pressure on them. A challenge is nothing more than raising the ante. I was challenging them not to shrink from the responsibility of being great, of being given consideration as the greatest team of all time.”
When Magic took up the theme and ran with it, it carried twice the impact.
“He told the guys, ‘We don’t want to be just another team. We want to be greater than great,'” Magic said. “When he explained it like that, I was like, ‘Yeah, that makes sense; we can get with this now.’ We got among ourselves and said, ‘OK, let’s go ahead and make a run at this thing.’ We had done everything else. We’d won four titles. But we hadn’t been part of history.”
And so, the quest began in earnest.
Kicking into gear, the Showtimers put together the league’s best regular-season record (62-20), a full eight games better than Central Division champion Detroit. This would prove critical down the road, guaranteeing – there’s that word again – home-court advantage for L.A. throughout the playoffs.
Did they ever need it.
After sweeping San Antonio 3-0 in the opening round, the Lakers were pushed to seven games by Utah in the Western Conference Semifinals, taking Game 7 at the Forum, 109-98. In the West Finals, Dallas stretched L.A. to the limit, as well, before falling, 117-102, in Game 7 at the Forum.
Chuck Daly and Detroit, meanwhile, were knocking out Washington, 3-2, blasting Chicago, 4-1, and whipping the Lakers’ old rivals from Boston, 4-2, in the East Finals.
Now the stage was set: Showtime vs. Bad Boys. Flash vs. Crash.
“It was our high-scoring offense against a team that set the standard defensively,” Johnson said. “You had to be mentally tough to play against them, and we were. You had to hit them back, and we did. We weren’t that all-finesse team everybody talked about. We had the talent, we loved to run, but we also had a toughness we didn’t get much credit for.”
The toughness took physical and mental forms.
The Pistons rocked the Lakers in Game 1 at the Forum behind 34 points from Adrian Dantley, who hit 14 of 16 from the field. Isiah Thomas (19 points, 12 assists) was outshone statistically by his good buddy Magic (28 points, 10 assists, eight rebounds), but the Magic Man couldn’t bring the Lakers back and they fell hard, 105-93.
“It had been a struggle all through those playoffs,” Riley said. “Nothing came easy. I think our ’87 team might have been our best team. We had come to maturity and we were a great, great, great team. The next year, ’88, we still had that maturity, but we’d aged a year. That team wasn’t quite as great as the ’87 team.”
But it was good enough.
With James Worthy dominating Dantley and setting the tone with 26 points, 10 rebounds and six assists, the Lakers rebounded to take Game 2, 108-96. Magic (23 points, 11 assists, seven rebounds) and Byron Scott (24 points) riddled Detroit’s superb backcourt trio of Thomas, Joe Dumars and Vinnie Johnson.
As the scene shifted to Michigan for three games, the Lakers had a renewed sense of purpose. Worthy outscored Dantley, 24-14, and A.C. Green (21 points, eight rebounds) also had a big effort. Thomas (28 points, nine assists) busted out at home, but it wasn’t enough to offset Magic and Scottt, each of whom had 18 points with Magic distributing 14 assists. The Lakers rolled, 99-86.
“Big Game James came into play in a big way,” Riley said. “We’d always gone to Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar) in the post, but it got to the point where James became our primary post player. We went to him over and over, and he delivered.”
Abdul-Jabbar, showing the wear and tear at age 41 and frustrated by the pounding of the Bad Boys, had only 35 points and 10 rebounds through three games.
His big moment, however, was coming.
With Dantley springing back to life and decisively taking his individual battle with Worthy, 27-7, the Pistons slugged their way back in Game 4 with 111-86 knockout. Johnson, with 23 points, was just about the sum total of the Lakers’ attack. The scoring balance belonged to Detroit, which got 16 points off the bench from Vinnie “Microwave” Johnson, 14 from James Edwards and solid defense and rebounding from the young lions, Dennis Rodman and John Salley.
Dantley, the ex-Laker, again asserted himself in Game 5, with 25 points to outscore Worthy by 11 in a 104-94 Pistons triumph. It had become apparent that this was the critical matchup in the series, more so than Abdul-Jabbar vs. Bill Laimbeer or Magic, Scott and Michael Cooper vs. Thomas, Dumars and Johnson in the backcourt.
Johnson and Thomas, close friends for years, became embroiled in a Game 5 altercation after Magic, angered over Detroit’s aggressive style slammed Thomas to the floor on a drive through the lane. Thomas jumped up and pushed Johnson back before order was restored. But the blood clearly was boiling.
To make good on Riley’s guarantee, the Lakers had to come home and win twice. Detroit had a margin for error, but the Pistons were not at full strength. Rick Mahorn, baddest of the Bad Boys, had a back ailment that was severely limiting his ability to wreak havoc inside. That left it up to the kids, Salley and Rodman, to play crucial minutes down the stretch.
“It was classic, as far as I’m concerned,” Dumars said. “You had a proud champion holding on, and a young team coming at them. What I remember about the series was how every play seemed so important. There was just so much going on. I was on Magic all series, and he was just wearing me out with that big body of his. I don’t think people realize how strong he was inside.”
Mahorn also has some painful memories of the series.
“What I remember most, really, is laying on my stomach on the floor by the bench,” he said. My back was out. I gave it my best shot, but I just couldn’t do the things I wanted to do. That’s the way the ball bounces, I guess.”
It bounced the Lakers’ way in Game 6 at the Forum, in spite of one of the most memorable individual performances in Finals history by Thomas.
Dragging a sprained ankle down the court, Isiah rang up 25 points in the third quarter alone on his way to an amazing 43. Thomas’ heroics had the Pistons ahead by one with 14 seconds left when a whistle sounded. It still hasn’t stopped ringing in the ears of the Pistons who were there that night. The Lakers were going to their old warrior, Abdul-Jabbar, and as he made his inside move, a foul was called on Laimbeer. As is often the case when a close call is made, the Pistons argued that the foul was a phantom call.
“Look at the tape,” Mahorn said. “Maybe the air got him. None of us did.”
Abdul-Jabbar went to the foul line, a 74-percent career free-throw marksman at playoff time, and drained the two biggest freebies of his life. When Dumars missed on the move from the lane on a broken play, the Lakers had held on, 103-102, spoiling a night that almost had belonged to Thomas.
Worthy once again was Big Game James with 28, doubling Dantley’s output, and Magic (22 points, 19 assists) was Magic. The Lakers won it at the foul line, going 35-of-43, compared to Detroit’s 22-of-27.
In Game 7, Detroit jumped out quickly and led at the half, 52-47. The Lakers were going to Worthy, and he was responding. In the third quarter, they busted it open, outscoring Detroit by 15 with a 36-point eruption. In one of the all-time Showtime explosions, the Lakers hit their first 10 shots of that fateful third quarter.
“It was going down to the last minute,” Riley said. “The way the whole playoffs had gone, we knew that.”
The Pistons had one last push in them, and they forced the Lakers to perspire all the way to the finish before succumbing, 108-105. The series ended with Magic flinging the ball the length of the court as time expired.
Worthy had enjoyed the game of his life, producing his first career triple-double: 36 points, 16 rebounds, 10 assists. Dantley had been held to 16 points, with Dumars’ leading the Pistons. Big Game James was rewarded with the Finals MVP award, his first.
“James had always been a little deferential to Kareem, deferential to Magic,” Riley said. “I remember how committed he was in that series, especially in Game 7. He was big, alive, doing it all. I think that game definitely took him over the top as a great, great player.”
The Lakers were the last true fast-break team to win the title. The Pistons, who would go on to seize the next two NBA crowns, became the new model with a grinding, defensive style.
“Detroit came in and changed and whole culture of the game,” Riley said. “We were a wide-open, running, athletic, fast-breaking team. They were defense first, rebound, slow it down, keep the clock to your advantage, win in the 80s and 90s. That’s the direction the game went.”
The guarantee, the season and the marathon playoffs were a grind for the Lakers. It had been the longest season ever by an NBA champion – 115 games. In the regular season and playoffs, the Lakers had won 77, which led to another guarantee by Riley in the afterglow of the repeat.
“I guarantee you one thing,” he said as the champagne flowed, “we will enjoy this all summer.”
Before he could make any promises of a three-peat, Abdul-Jabbar, the venerable “Captain,” stuffed a towel in the coach’s mouth.
The Lakers had joined the all-time elite. The Pistons would win back-to-back, and the Bulls would eventually win three straight titles. But the Lakers were the ones to break the long spell without back-to-back champs. They made good on Riley’s guarantee and, thus, became one of the great, great teams of all time.

Lakers 1886-87

Under the tutelage of Pat Riley, the veteran Lakers went from fast-breaking to hard-working.
The 1986-87 Lakers may not have been L.A.’s most talented team, even its best in the decade. The Lakers’ 1983-84 team had the same nucleus, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, James Worthy and Byron Scott. Abdul-Jabbar, three years younger at 37, was still a 20-point scorer. Jamaal Wilkes started at small forward, averaging 17 points, while Worthy and Michael Cooper came off the bench with former MVP Bob McAdoo.
Of course, that 1983-84 team lost in the Finals to the Celtics, after leading going into the last minute of the first four games and blowing two.
That was the difference. The Lakers won their first two titles in the ‘80s on sheer, dazzling, fast-breaking talent. By the 1986-87 season, they weren’t as flashy but were learning to play the game with their heads.
Their transition from highlight reel to blue-collar was embodied by the growth of coach Pat Riley, whose highlight that season was “guaranteeing” they’d repeat after they won the title, a promise they delivered on a year later, becoming the NBA’s first back-to-back champions in 19 years.
However, that was the least of what Riley did for them that season, reshaping a team everyone thought was over.
Coming off their 1985 breakthrough against the Celtics, the Lakers thought they were just warming up when they were dumped by the young Houston Rockets -- who featured “Twin Towers” Hakeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson -- in a rude five-game wakeup call in the 1986 West Finals.
Among the people who thought the Lakers had been passed by were the Lakers themselves. Worthy said, “I think we’ve peaked.” Johnson said, “I don’t want to sound like I’m trying to coach but we need someone big, that’s all.” Riley said they had to face the possibility they had suffered a “core burnout.”
GM Jerry West searched so desperately for another big man to complement Abdul-Jabbar, who was 39 in the fall of 1986, there was speculation about the possible acquisition of Chicago’s Jawann Oldham, who was coming off a career high 7.4 points a game. On the eve of training camp in Palm Springs, West told Riley the cavalry wasn’t coming over the hill.
“I told him, ‘Pat, I don’t know if it’s possible,’” said West. “‘Maybe moving personnel around, doing things differently, maybe that’ll help.’”
There had been few changes since the fall of 1981 when Riley took over the Lakers’ sideline; to that point, his entire coaching experience consisted of one season as newly fired Paul Westhead’s assistant. Withy owner Jerry Buss was still skeptical after failing to persuade West to coach, waiting until they made the finals to remove the “interim” title; Riley was like an orphan his players had found on their doorstep.
“Riles,” as he was know to his players, tread lightly for three seasons before assuming command with a thunderclap in the 1985 Finals when his two days of rage after the Celtics’ Game 1 rout in the Memorial Day Massacre turned the series and the decade around.
Two seasons later, however, more would be called for than motivation, on which Riley prided himself. Now he’d have to reinvent them.
Riley’s Plan B was to reroute the offense through Johnson, saving Abdul-Jabbar for late-game and late-season situations. There was no question Johnson could handle it. There was a big question whether the forbidding Abdul-Jabbar would.
Riley didn’t dare make an announcement. Instead, he put in new plays that everyone stumbled through so badly the first day, he almost junked the whole thing. A couple of days later, however, Abdul-Jabbar, who had figured out what was going on, mentioned casually he liked the changes, to Riley’s vast relief.
That was the hard part. Everything that followed was like dominos falling.
They lost the opener in Houston, 112-102, then won nine in a row. The next time they saw the Rockets -- in Houston on Dec. 21 -- the Lakers were 18-6 and won this one, 103-96. Five days later they met again in the Forum and the Lakers won by 23.
The Lakers finished 67-15, winning the West by 10 games, 25 ahead of the 42-40 Rockets, whose star set in a hurry.
West finally found a big man, freeing Mychal Thompson from the San Antonio bench. Thompson, a former No. 1 overall pick, joined Cooper, their defensive hound and an emerging three-point threat, with veterans Kurt Rambis and Mitch Kupchak.
Johnson raised his scoring average from 18 to 24 points and won his first MVP, the first for any point guard since Oscar Robertson in 1964. Worthy, averaged 19, shooting 54 percent and Abdul-Jabbar, scored 17 and shot 56 percent. As a team they shot 52 percent, averaged a league-leading 112 points per game and were No. 6 in defense.
If not for Sleepy Floyd’s 51 points (29 of them coming in the fourth quarter) in Game 4 of their second-round series with the Warriors, the Lakers -- who led the series 3-0 at the time of Floyd’s awakening -- would have reached the NBA Finals 11-0 instead of 11-1.
The Celtics, who had broken the Lakers’ hearts so many times, did all they could to extend the series to six games. The Lakers won the opener by 13, a performance Boston’s K.C. Jones called “a thing of beauty.” Unfortunately for Jones, it paled in comparison to the Lakers’ effort Game 2, which they won by 19.
Back in Boston, the Celtics won Game 3, and led Game 4 before Johnson won it in the closing seconds with his “junior, junior skyhook” over Kevin McHale and Robert Parish. Larry Bird then hit the back rim on a 22-footer at the buzzer and Red Auerbach chased referee Earl Strom to the dressing room in the last great moment in the storied Lakers-Celtics rivalry. The Celtics won Game 5, but the Lakers closed them out back in the Forum in Game 6, 106-93.
Riley’s promise of a repeat was redeemed a year later, this time in more harrowing fashion. The Lakers had to win crucial Game 7s against Utah, Dallas and Detroit on their fifth title run of the decade; the Celtics, in comparison, won three championships in the 10-year span. Just like that, with two brilliant postseason performances, the hotly debated “Team of the Decade” debate was finally resolved.

Riley and the 2006 Heat

The Heat, loaded with postseason veterans, gear up for another season in the playoff sun

Who owns the record for most postseason victories by a head coach? For many years, it was Red Auerbach, who won 99 playoff games in an era with only two rounds of postseason play. He was surpassed by Pat Riley in 1990. Riley won 102 postseason games in his nine seasons with the Lakers. Riles won 35 more in four seasons with the Knicks. He would add a few more in his years in Miami.
Even after six championships with the Chicago Bulls, Phil Jackson had 111 playoff wins, well behind Riley’s 149 following the 1999 season. It wasn’t until June 12, 2002 that Jackson passed Riley with his 156th postseason victory. That same night, Shaquille O’Neal’s 34 points, 10 rebounds and four assists capped a sweep of the Nets and gave Jackson something more important -- his ninth NBA championship.
Jackson would add 19 additional playoff victories, and going into this season led Riley 175-155. It seemed like an unbreakable record, especially considering Jackson re-entered the coaching ranks this season after a one year hiatus.
Following Jackson and Riley are the following: Larry Brown (100 wins), Jerry Sloan (78), Gregg Popovich (69), Rick Adelman (68), and George Karl (60). For Popovich to challenge Jackson and Riley, he would have to put together a decade like Riles had in the ‘80s or Jackson had in the ‘90s. That’s a tall order for the 57-year-old Spurs coach, who won 69 games in his first nine seasons in the postseason.

But just when you thought that Jackson’s record for postseason victories would last longer than DiMaggio’s hit streak, Pat Riley returned as head coach of the Heat.
And this time, Riley, rather than Jackson, has Shaquille O’Neal on his side.
If the Heat (who won 11 playoff games last year and four more so far this season) win the NBA championship, then Riley will edge dangerously close to Jackson’s record.
It’s something to watch for.
Speaking of Shaquille O’Neal and playoff victories, does anyone realize that Shaq has won 75 postseason games in the last six years? Those 75 wins have been good for 18 postseason series victories. Only a handful of players -- all of whom played for Riley with the Lakers in the mid-80s -- have surpassed.
Bill Russell -- considered the greatest winner in team sports history -- won 27 playoff series in his 13-year career, but never won more than 55 games in a six year stretch; his 55 wins game from 1964 to 1969. In his first 14 seasons, Shaq has won the same amount of playoff series, and could win more depending on how the Heat fare the rest of the way in this year's postseason (Miami's win last night over the Bulls gave Shaq yet another playoff series victory).
Michael Jordan won 68 playoff games and 17 series in the six years before his first retirement (1988-1993). Beginning in 1993, Jordan also won 17 playoff series in six years. Scottie Pippen, because he played (and won a first-round series) in 1994, had 18 in the same six-year period.
Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish never won more than 17 playoff series over a six-year stretch.
Here’s the most NBA playoff series won in a consecutive six-year period:

Player	Years	Series Wins
Magic Johnson	1984-1989	20
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	1984-1989	20
Michael Cooper	1984-1989	20
Byron Scott	1984-1989	20
James Worthy	1984-1989	20
Scottie Pippen	1993-1998	18
Robert Horry	2000-2005	18
Steve Kerr	1996-2001	18

If Shaq plays three more playoff game in 2006, he will tie Dennis Johnson with 180 postseason games played -- 10th most all-time. If the Heat advance to the Finals, they would probably play at least 23 postseason games. Shaquille (if he stays healthy) would then trail only Abdul-Jabbar (237 games), Scottie Pippen (208) and Robert Horry (198).
There's another man on the Miami Heat bench who holds an NBA postseason scoring record that may never be broken. And it’s not Shaq, Alonzo Mourning or Gary Payton. It’s assistant coach Bob McAdoo.
McAdoo holds the NBA postseason record for most points in a two-game playoff series. He scored 68 points for New York against Cleveland in 1978.
Although Payton will most probably never come close to McAdoo's mark, he does have a place on another exclusive list. Only three active players have more postseason points than Payton's 2,022: Shaq, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan. If the Heat advance a couple rounds this season, Payton should pass Kevin Johnson, Tom Heinsohn, Moses Malone, Jeff Hornacek and George Mikan on the all-time list. That's pretty good company for The Glove.
There's no telling where the Playoff road will lead this year's Miami Heat, but with Riley and Shaq, and a supporting cast of playoff veterans (not to mention Dwyane Wade, one of the best young players in the game), history seems to be on Miami's side.

Larry Brown

Although his Knicks missed the 2006 Playoffs, Larry Brown's stamp is all over the postseason
Of the 16 franchises in this year’s NBA postseason, it seems that Larry Brown coached every one of them. Although that’s not quite true, Brown’s travels have allowed him to influence players, coaches and front office staff on nearly every playoff team.
How can a head coach whose New York Knicks squad finished 23-59 this season be so far-reaching? In Larry Brown’s case, it was easy. “I’ve grown up playing for some incredible coaches, and I don’t think anybody’s ever been as fortunate as I have in terms of the people I’ve been allowed to play under, coach under or be involved with,” says Brown.
The same can be said for those who learned under the well-traveled coach.
Start with the first-round matchup between the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Clippers. Brown played for the Denver Nuggets, of course, and coached them from 1975-1979. But Larry’s influence with the current Nuggets extends beyond a note in the history books. The general manager of Denver is Kiki Vandeweghe, who played for Brown at UCLA and led them to the NCAA Championship Game in 1980. The assistant head coach of the team is Doug Moe. Moe began his career with the Nuggets as an assistant coach to his college and pro teammate Larry Brown. The head coach of Denver is George Karl. Karl, a University of North Carolina product (like Brown and Moe), began his coaching career as an assistant under Moe.
But let’s not just talk about Larry, Moe and Karl (Curley?).
Denver’s opponent in the first round was the Los Angeles Clippers. Prior to 2006, the last playoff victory for the Clippers came in 1993, when Larry Brown led the Clips to the postseason.

In another first-round playoff series, the San Antonio Spurs play the Sacramento Kings. The Spurs -- the defending NBA champions -- are coached by Gregg Popovich. In 1988, Pop was hired as an assistant coach on Larry Brown’s staff with the Spurs. That was his first NBA job. Not only are Popovich and Brown great friends, but the Spurs start 40 percent of their starting lineup with players who started for Brown (Bruce Bowen and Nazr Mohammed).
The Sacramento Kings aren’t totally void of Larry Brown’s influence either. When Brown coached the Detroit Pistons to the 2004 NBA Championship, one of his key contributors was current King Corliss Williamson.
It’s harder to find Brown’s protégées in the Lakers-Suns series, but not impossible. Of Suns five current starters, two played for Brown at the beginning of their NBA careers. Raja Bell and Tim Thomas are playing huge roles for the Suns these days. And another former Sixer, Aaron McKie, is an active player with the Lakers.
The one remaining Western Conference first-round playoff matchup pits the Dallas Mavericks and the Memphis Grizzlies. Dallas is coached by Avery Johnson. Johnson played point guard for Brown for most of the 1991 season with San Antonio.
In the East, most of the Detroit Pistons have first-hand knowledge of playing for Brown. Detroit’s opponent, the Milwaukee Bucks, have Joe Smith, who played for Larry in 1998.
Brown coached the New Jersey Nets and the Indiana Pacers. The CEO/President of the Pacers is Donnie Walsh. Walsh is, like Brown, a New York native who played at the University of North Carolina; he entered the NBA in 1977, when he was hired by (guess who?) Larry Brown.
In 1993, it was Walsh who hired Brown to coach the Pacers, and in 1994 they reached the Eastern Conference Finals.
The Cleveland Cavaliers nearly had Brown running their basketball team this season; he was rumored to be close to signing on as their GM last spring. Instead, the Cavs have two former Brown players (Larry Hughes and Eric Snow).
The Cavs are playing the Washington Wizards, whose head coach Eddie Jordan, somehow never crossed paths with Brown. The closest they came was when Jordan played for the Nets in 1981; Brown took over as head coach in 1982. Chicago Bulls head coach Scott Skiles also missed Brown by a year. Skiles played for the 1996 Sixers, and Brown took over in 1997.
And that’s only players and coaches with first-hand experience. Everyone can be linked to Brown in only a few steps. Nets coach Larry Frank coached under Pacers assistant Kevin O’Neill. O’Neill coached under Brown.
Only two head coaches have coached in and won more postseason games than Brown. Their names are Phil Jackson and Pat Riley. Jackson and Riley have combined to win 13 of the last 24 NBA championships. But the last three (and four of the last seven) have been won by Brown or his coaching disciple, Popovich
Jackson and Riley have had the benefit of coaching Kareem and Michael and Magic and Shaq and Kobe and Wade. Brown has had only three players make First-Team All NBA. Those three were Allen Iverson (1999, 2001), David Robinson (1991), and David Thompson (1977). Only Iverson was an MVP under Brown.
For most great players and coaches, there is one city that can honor a player or coach. Heck, in Philadelphia, a microphone is retired in honor of broadcaster Dave Zinkoff. The Hall of Fame isn’t enough of an honor for Brown, who was enshrined in Springfield in 2002. Perhaps airports across the country can pay homage to Brown. He's certainly racked up his share of frequent-flyer miles.