In a comprehensive, incredible new feature on legendary NBA coach and executive Pat Riley by ESPN’s Wright Thompson, the current President of the Miami Heat (and boss of a coach who almost turned down his interview to go to a Grateful Dead show) reveals how music gets him through some of the tougher moments of his career as well as choice listening while lounging oceanside in Malibu. 

Riley’s Springsteen fandom is well-documented (the American Airlines Arena played “The Rising” during the team’s 2013 championship celebration) and he did what anyone would do after suffering a setback: He headed to Paris to see The Boss. 

As Thompson writes, just days after Dwyane Wade decided to jet for Chicago, Riley and wife Chris did the same to France to clear their minds. 

Hurt and wounded, Riley and his wife booked a last-minute trip to Paris, leaving three days later for a reprieve and a few Bruce Springsteen shows. During the first one, Springsteen played Riley’s favorite song: “Land of Hope and Dreams.” It’s an anthem for Riley, because he spends a lot of time imagining the future he might have, when all his battles have been fought and won. He dreams of a different life, and not in an abstract way. He sees it, down to the taste of the dinner he’ll eat and the music he’ll play.

Riley’s musical therapy doesn’t stop there. On the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, he flew west to scout games but not before stopping in Malibu at his California home for some much needed rest. Lounging on the deck, Riles dug into Jason Isbell’s Something More Than Free. 

That first night, he stops over in Malibu before a flight to Sacramento in the morning. He lounges on the deck. The clock on his phone says 4:48 p.m. It’s the “golden hour,” as he calls it, which usually means he turns on the “R&B 2” playlist, watching the sun set to a soundtrack of the Chi-Lites and Frankie Beverly. But today, he listens to just a few songs on repeat, by singer-songwriter Jason Isbell, “Something More Than Free” and “Traveling Alone.”

Pat Riley sounds awesome.