Miami Heat president Pat Riley reveals where his ’three-peat’ trademark revenues wind up

Article content

Pat Riley’s three-peat trademarks could have led to the Miami Heat president getting a sizable payday if the Kansas City Chiefs had won their third consecutive Super Bowl.

Turns out, the Basketball Hall of Famer actually doesn’t keep that money.

Riley said he devotes his share of revenues gleaned from “three-peat” usage — he has had trademarks on that term for about 35 years — to various charitable organizations.

Of particular importance to Riley and his wife, Chris Riley, are groups that help military veterans and their families, including the Special Operations Warrior Foundation in Tampa, Florida.

Riley has said the donations he and the Heat make to veterans’ groups are “very minor in comparison to what they deserve.”

“These are very patriotic, brave and proud people,” Riley said Wednesday. “What they do in serving our country to keep us safe is one of the most courageous sacrifices an American can offer.”

Riley and the Heat created what the team has called the “HomeStrong” initiative 20 years ago, and the team has routinely welcomed returning soldiers and first responders to Miami games over those two decades, plus further honor them with an on-court pregame ceremony. Riley also took the team’s training camp in 2010 to military bases in northwest Florida.

The Special Operations Warrior Foundation — which has received $200,000 in recent years from Riley and his wife, plus another $100,000 that a Heat donor earmarked to the charity of Riley’s choice — honors fallen soldiers and Medal of Honor recipients with grants for education as part of what it calls a “cradle to career” plan that backs the children of those soldiers from preschool through college.

It also provides financial grants to severely combat-wounded, ill, and injured Special Operations soldiers in need of medical care.

Riley has owned multiple “three-peat” trademarks since beginning to file for them in the late 1980s, when the Los Angeles Lakers — who he was coaching at that time — were seeking three consecutive NBA titles.

Riley struck a deal with the Chiefs on three-peat usage, just in case Kansas City had won its third straight Super Bowl. The Chiefs lost to Philadelphia 40-22 on Sunday, ending the three-peat bid.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra and some players half-seriously said before the Super Bowl that they were rooting for the Chiefs, with hopes that Riley would gift the team with some wine. But Spoelstra added that there is obviously a deeper meaning, one that Riley has kept largely private.

“There’s a great story to it,” Spoelstra said.