Two events of note took place yesterday in the basketball world: the NCAA championship game and the election of Schenectady’s own Pat Riley to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Riley himself played in an NCAA title game while at the University of Kentucky and won a National Basketball Association championship as a player for the Los Angeles Lakers.

But it is as a coach that he has really left his mark, first with the Lakers, who he led to four titles in the 1980s; then with the New York Knicks, a struggling team that he remade and took to the NBA finals in 1994; and now with the Miami Heat, who he guided to his fifth championship in 2006.

A sought-after motivational speaker in the off-season, Riley is known as a coach who can get a bunch of talented athletes to accept their roles and play together as a team — which, as any coach or serious fan knows, is easier said than done.

In being elected to the Hall of Fame, he joins the select company of such giants as John Wooden, Red Auerbach and Adolph Rupp (his old coach at Kentucky), where, given his record and impact on the game, he truly belongs. Congratulations, Coach Riley.