Pat Riley I had my first celebrity sighting since living here in LA last night (well, in my life really): I met Pat Riley!My girlfriend came into town last night and wanted to go out. Normally when she comes to visit, we head back to my place and do the domestic thing, but this time was a bit different. My usual hang out buddy was chillin' with a friend of his in Santa Monica that evening, so we decided to go straight from LAX to meet up with him. It was a cool, lounge-y type spot just off the Promenade. It had these really plush velvet couches, and a small dance floor in the corner. The crowd was good, and it wasn't too packed. We hung out and danced for about an hour or so and right before we were ready to leave the DJ announced, "Pat Riley's in the house tonight!" It didn't seem like anyone else in the place was paying any attention. I leaned to my boy and asked if I'd heard my man correctly. He said, "no, couldn't be." He was convinced the DJ was talking about "R-Kelly," as right after he made the announcement he started playing R-Kelly. "Riley," "Kelly," I could see how the names would get confused, especially in a loud place like that. As we left we went up to the bar to close our tab. Not quite believing the whole "R-Kelly" thing, I was still kind of looking for Coach Riley. I glanced toward the end of the bar and there he was, his unmistakable slicked back hair and Hollywood look (with a dab of Miami flare) that I had grown up to admire. To me, Pat Riley is one of the greatest coaches of all time. What I find really unfortunate is that there seems to be a new generation of basketball players and fans that don't appreciate his skills. People who only saw his performance in Miami, where his old school, defense first style of basketball didn't go over very well in the young, star studded line up. I think he was kind of screwed over by the officials too, as a ref once said he enjoyed watching Riley's career go down the tube. Lest these people forget what this man did for the Lakers in the 80's?!?! I sure don't though! And I let him know Thursday night :) I was a bit hesitant to approach him, as I didn't want to ruin his night (I'm sure he gets bombarded everywhere he goes). But after some coaxing from my friends I walked up to him. He shook my hand, giving me a warm welcome as though we'd met before. I told him we needed him back out here in LA, to which we both kinda laughed. I thanked him for all the memories and went on my way. Short and sweet, but definitely fulfilled a childhood dream. And if he does decide to come back out here to LA as head coach, I can always fool myself into thinking it was because of me :)
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