Leading the Life of Riley : Knick Coach Says He Still Suffers, but Tries to Smile

Seems like old times. . . .

Pat Riley will leave his house in Brentwood to drive to the Forum for tonight’s Laker game. Once again, he’ll stride the sidelines, magnificent in mousse and Armani.

“Oh, no, no!” Riley said. “It’s not like old times. It’ll be a lot different.”

Riley now lives in Greenwich, Conn. He no longer coaches the Lakers, whom he led to four NBA titles in the 1980s, but the New York Knicks, whom he has turned into Atlantic Division leaders.

It could make a fellow eager for tonight’s return to the Forum. Like Magic Johnson, Riley never had a chance to say goodby in the arena in which he cut so dazzling a figure. He’s assured of a big welcome. Even if there was grumbling below decks at the end, Riley never lost his matinee-idol standing among Laker fans.

Had Laker players had it with him?

Did he resign, as announced?

Sunday, he told ESPN he was “embarrassed” at suggestions to the contrary, adding Laker owner Jerry Buss offered him a 10-year extension.

“I don’t know anything about an extension,” a Forum official said. “Are you sure he meant to coach?”

Riley downplayed any controversy Tuesday.

“That’s a thing of the past,” he said. “I had many conversations with Jerry Buss, who was simply great to me while I was here. And during the period when I was making that decision, things were offered. . . . I don’t want to get into some kind of deal about something that was said two years ago, because it doesn’t count. This is the present moment. This is what it’s about.”

Sunday he told ESPN the Lakers had “de-Rileyized” themselves.

Later he said he was only kidding.

Actually, he said it as long ago as October in training camp, going on to explain: “That’s just how organizations are. I mean, they had a new coach (Mike Dunleavy) who came in, and they had to forget about all those other things.”

For whatever reason, the Lakers have forgotten about many things.

Byron Scott, who once compared Riley’s exit to “a resurrection,” says the strained feelings of their last days together are gone.

“Well, you know that was two years ago,” Scott said Tuesday. “I don’t think anyone who was involved in that situation really even thinks about it any more. He’s been going on with his life, and I think myself, James (Worthy), A.C. (Green, the last three of Riley’s Lakers) have been going on with ours. You just let it go.”

Riley got the most out of his Laker teams, but he kept turning up the pressure, inward and outward, and soon it was time to go.

In his year working as a commentator for NBC, he says now, he never doubted he would return to coaching.

“I never wanted an easy life,” he said Tuesday. “I don’t want an easy life. When I’m 60, I might want an easy life. I needed this. That wasn’t enough. . . . This is what I do. It’s what I love to do. It actually was a great year for me because all those other things that I thought I wanted to do--I realized how much I didn’t want to do them.

“I tried to do them, and I was just so damn bored. We had three movies that we were producing and we were doing television shows and we were writing books and we were fishing. We were doing all that stuff, and I realized this is what it’s about.”

Of course, “this” takes a toll, as described by Riley on ESPN:

“I believe in two things. I believe there’s winning and there’s misery. And even when we win, I’m miserable. But there’s a lot of levity to me, believe it or not. It just isn’t shown publicly.

“This was a time when (the Knicks) weren’t doing very well and there was a lot of pressure and I sort of created a lot of pressure on myself.

“And as I was explaining the problem of the day, (his wife) Chris said, ‘You know Pat, every now and then just sort of . . . you know, smile. Just smile. It just warms you up and everybody up.’

“I’d never thought about it that way. I do believe there’s something to that, so at least once a day, I try to smile now. Even when I’m miserable.”