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What's up guy.. I'm doing a motival speech for work Monday and I want to use one of my all time favorite ones from Riley. Problem is.. I've never read the whole thing only heard about it. It was the one from his Laker days when he put his head under water for like 3 mins! Then came up and said you have to want to win as bad as you want to breathe.


Does anyone know where I can find this? I tried googling it but no luck. Is it only in one of his books?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

I thought he did the bucket of ice trick here in Miami. I'm sure sunsports has done some things where there are people talking about it. You might be able to find something on youtube. If not I would suggest getting a copy of one of Riley's books. I'm sure he's written about it.

Cool.. Thanks!

Couldn't find a video, but found part of an article:

But the unveiling of the mystery bowl and the retelling of the tightrope-walker story revealed the truth, and this one may go down as one of Riley's best motivational messages ever. Another good one: Riley once put a large bucket of ice water in front of him and told his team: "If you want to win a championship, you have to want it…"

Stopping in mid-sentence, Riley plunged his head into the water and kept it there for several seconds, which turned into a minute, which turned into even more than a minute. His players sat dumbfounded, watching, until Riley finally pulled his head out of the water and finished his sentence:

"…like it's your last breath."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime ... ime-060621

Thanks man! Found the same article. Was hoping for more of the back story. But this still helps

Thanks!

Damn that man is the greatest

I've decided to break my vow to not post here again this one time just for this speech. The quoted article is inadequate.

Here's the story: In the lockout shortened season, the NBA scrambled to fit as many games as possible into a tight time period, which lead to sets of 3 games in 3 nights. Brutal. At one point in the season the Heat found themselves about to play the 3rd game in one of those sets when nobody in the league had been able to win one yet. Before the game Riley told the team "why not us?" and then told them a story about a young football coach who coached his heart out but could not get the team to win. The previous coach who had been a legend would go sit by a nearby lake and watch the practices. One day the young coach goes to the legend and, exasperated, asks him, "how did you do it?". The old coach grabs him, shoves his face in the lake, and holds it there while the guy struggles and struggles and then finally let's him up for air. Gasping and coughing the young coach asks him why he did that and the old man says, "when it's as important as taking that next breath, then you'll win."

At half time, the Heat were down, so without really saying anything, Riley just takes a big bucket of ice water and sticks his head in it. Holds it there for a long time. When he finally comes up for air he nearly passes out, falling over, and Zo catches him. He tells the team: that's how important it has to be to you. Heat end up winning the game.

Ok bye

*edited to fix grammar. Also, thanks Timmy

mopper8 wrote:I've decided to break my vow to not post here again this one time just for this speech. The quoted article is inadequate.

Here's the story: In the lockout shortened season, the NBA scrambled to fit as many games as possible into a tight time period, which meant lead to sets of 3 games in 3 nights. Brutal. At one point in the season the Heat found themselves about to play the 3rd game in one of those sets when nobody in the league had been able to win one yet. Before the game Riley told the team "why not us?" and then told them a story about a young football coach who coached his heart output could not get the team to win. The previous coach who had been a legend would go sit by a nearby lake and watch the practices. One day the young coach goes to the legend and, exasperated, asks him, "how did you do it?". The old coach grabs him, shoves his face in the lake, and holds it there while the guy struggles and struggled and then finally let's him up for air. Gasping and coughing the young coach asks himmwhy he did that and the old man says, "when it's as important as taking that last breath, then you'll win."

At half time, the Heat were down, so without really saying anything, Riley just takes a big bucket of ice water and sticks his head in it. Holds it there for a long time. When he finally comes up for air he nearly passes out, falling over, and Zo catches him. He tells the team: that's how important it has to be to you. Heat end up winning the game.

Ok bye

God that's awesome.

And this board is worse without you.

EDIT: much worse

Who Will Bring The Heart of PJ Brown?

What a great speech. Most of my friends are hardly even interested in basketball but when I told them about this they were like, "I would play for that guy" lol. That's The Godfather for you.

Why did mopper vow to stop posting and Lane posts alot less and more sarcastically?

mopper8 wrote:I've decided to break my vow to not post here again this one time just for this speech. The quoted article is inadequate.

What happen you lost a bet, why

heatdynasty2010 wrote:Why did mopper vow to stop posting and Lane posts alot less and more sarcastically?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W23LKD9Z1hw[/youtube]

Lane1974 wrote:

heatdynasty2010 wrote:Why did mopper vow to stop posting and Lane posts alot less and more sarcastically?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W23LKD9Z1hw[/youtube]

That's like the second time you've posted that video.

Lane1974 wrote:

heatdynasty2010 wrote:Why did mopper vow to stop posting and Lane posts alot less and more sarcastically?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W23LKD9Z1hw[/youtube]

Dang i didnt know that had an effect on you guys

but seriously?

shanedude wrote:

Lane1974 wrote:

heatdynasty2010 wrote:Why did mopper vow to stop posting and Lane posts alot less and more sarcastically?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W23LKD9Z1hw[/youtube]

That's like the second time you've posted that video.

you probably....

I can't seem to find the article, but when asked about it years later, Tim Hardaway sort of shrugged and admitted that the ice bucket speech didn't motivate him much -- in fact, he was practically derisive. And the reason why that's interesting to me is that I'd like to think that I'd get fired up over Riley's speech, but knowing how moody and apathetic and disillusioned I am, I'm afraid I'd probably react the same way as Hardaway.

It's still an awesome story, though.

^ Meh, they won the game, and it probably did motivated a lot of guys.

Some players jsut dont need extra motivation. for the most part they all want to win and the Heat has had some scrappy teams that fight to win. Of course Riley hand picked those guys and he looks for that quality.

That speech was so good that it motivated Mopper to post on these boards again...