Posted on Wed, Oct. 11, 2006

Riley is the right-hand man to Nellie
The coaching veteran is a No. 1 assistant for the first time in his
18-year NBA career

By Geoff Lepper
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

OAKLAND - Last season, Warriors coach Mike Montgomery declined to name a
first among equals from his group of four assistants. The question
finally was put to rest in February, when Montgomery was ejected and
Keith Smart took charge for the final 23.5 seconds of Golden State's
111-107 loss to the Seattle SuperSonics.

This year, there is no doubt about the composition of the Warriors
staff. When Don Nelson returned to Oakland as head coach, he brought
only one man from his previous tenure in Dallas: Larry Riley, a
62-year-old who has become a No. 1 assistant for the first time in his
18-year NBA career.

To Nelson, this was not an optional move but a mandatory one.

"There's two things you have to do as a coach: You have to coach your
players, and you have to coach your staff," Nelson said. "If I'm just
alone with all new guys, it's just as hard to coach your staff as it is
your players. So if you have somebody who knows what you're doing, which
he does, then he makes that part of my job really easy.

"And it's been a real easy camp for me. It would have been a hard one
had I not had somebody that's been with me (before)."

If Nelson is the big-picture visionary expected to spearhead the
Warriors' resurgence, then Riley is the nuts-and-bolts man who makes
sure all the pieces fit together smoothly.

For example, written on the white board in Riley's office is a list of
all the things the Warriors have covered so far in their training camp.
And if the head coach isn't getting his theory through to his team
during a chalkboard lesson, Riley is there to help translate and keep
things on track.

"If Nellie gets stuck on one thing, Larry will keep things going. He
reminds him what they want to talk about and what points they want to
make," center Troy Murphy said. "You can tell that they are really
together with what they want to accomplish every day in practice."

When told of that story, Riley self-deprecatingly said he was
"slow-witted" enough to figure out where a player might get lost. But
that's hardly the truth for a man who was steeped in basketball
tradition from an early age.

Riley grew up on a farm near the tiny hamlet of Whitewater, Ind., and in
grade school, he and his twin brother, Mike, listened on the radio as
Bobby Plump and little Milan High School bested the big-city boys from
Muncie Central to win the 1954 Indiana high school basketball championship.

After playing baseball and basketball -- he grudgingly admits to being
better at the former -- at Chadron State in Nebraska, Larry Riley spent
three years coaching high school hoops. Then he took a graduate
assistant job at Southeast Missouri State, and when the Indians coach
moved to Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Riley went with him.

"At that point, it was definitely my purpose to stay in basketball as a
lifetime career," Riley said.

It took Riley an additional 18 years before he joined the NBA in 1988,
as a scout and video coordinator for old friend Del Harris, who was then
coaching the Milwaukee Bucks. Riley stayed in Milwaukee for six seasons,
then spent six more in Vancouver as the Grizzlies' director of player
personnel. Nelson brought him to Dallas in 2000 to be an assistant coach
and NBA advance scout.

For Riley, moving to Oakland provided him a chance to work with two of
his favorite basketball minds: Nelson, and his brother Mike, who also
joined the Warriors this summer as an advance scout.

"Working with Nellie was such a great experience," Larry Riley said. "He
causes players and assistant coaches to have to open up their mind, and
really see the game beyond just the total structure."

Nelson appreciates the balance Riley brings.

"He's really good and we're lucky to have him," Nelson said. "This is
the first time he's been a No. 1 assistant, but he's more than ready for
it."