Photo Credit: Mike Stocker, Sun Sentinel

Pat Riley Filed Trademark For ‘Three-Peat’ Earned Lots Of Royalties When Bulls Won Three Straight Titles

No matter where Pat Riley was in his long NBA career as player, coach and executive, he’s always been very successful, and he has the gold to show for it.

Riley won one ring as a player, five as a coach, and three as an executive. If we add the one ring he won as an assistant coach, that makes a grand total of 10 championship rings.

Riley has always been a genius within the game who knew things others didn’t, and who could see things others couldn’t. This is also one of the reasons he’s been able to build so many great teams. More so, Riley was a master of recruiting players.

But the Heat president also has been a genius off the court. In 1988 off the back of consecutive NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers, Riley field for the term ‘three-peat’ to be trademarked.

His initial plan with the trademark was a way of him guaranteeing Lakers fans that they would win a third consecutive title.

While this did not happen – the Lakers lost to the Pistons in the 1989 NBA Finals – his move to trademark ‘three-peat’ paid off big time, years later.

The Chicago Bulls three-peated twice, and the Lakers had a three-peat between 2000-2002, Riley was able to cash in big every single time.

He should write a thank you note to Phil Jackson, who coached all of those three-peating teams in the NBA.