Success Only Restarted Cycle of Misery

Former Laker Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in a chronicle of his final NBA season in 1988-89, published in March, wrote that Pat Riley did not seem to enjoy life as the Lakers’ coach:

“(Coaches) receive little recognition until they win it all,” Abdul-Jabbar wrote. “And whether they win or lose, the season ages them. Already, the seasons are making Pat Riley old. In flashes, you can see it on his face, which often is a study in stress. One day in the locker room he said that as a coach you are never satisfied until you win the championship, and then you’re sort of satisfied. There’s another championship to go for the next year, and the year after that, and it never stops. From Riley’s point of view, as he has described it, there are two possible states of being--winning and misery.”