Comments on: Winning Wasn’t Good Enough For These Coaches http://www.basketball-reference.com/blog/?p=7302 NBA & ABA Basketball Statistics & History Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:56:04 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6 By: Jason J http://www.basketball-reference.com/blog/?p=7302&cpage=1#comment-23818 Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:44:13 +0000 http://www.basketball-reference.com/blog/?p=7302#comment-23818 I remember that. There's also a story about Jordan refusing to finish a scrimmage because he thought Collins was rigging the "officiating" against his team. However, the two men clearly like each other now. Jordan hired him in Washington, and Collins can't say enough good things about Michael as a person and a player. Everybody from Dean Smith to Bob Knight (Olympics) to Collins to Jackson to Daily raved about Jordan's coachablility at one time or another, so they probably could have reached common ground. Hell, I'm sure Jordan was pining for Doug's spread offense when Jackson instituted the triangle!

]]> By: Neil Paine http://www.basketball-reference.com/blog/?p=7302&cpage=1#comment-23816 Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:39:43 +0000 http://www.basketball-reference.com/blog/?p=7302#comment-23816 Yeah, Collins almost made this list -- like you say, he had 47 wins and was still fired. Although I remember they had something about that in The Jordan Rules (still one of my favorite basketball books ever), that Collins couldn't deal with Jordan... There was some incident where Collins wanted practice on Christmas eve, Jordan refused to come, and Collins eventually begged him just to make an appearance so he could save face. Sam Smith seemed to feel that Jackson's calculating style was the only one that could bring the full potential out of MJ.

]]> By: Jason J http://www.basketball-reference.com/blog/?p=7302&cpage=1#comment-23815 Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:02:18 +0000 http://www.basketball-reference.com/blog/?p=7302#comment-23815 Interesting post, Neil. It's odd to see all these coaching changes lined up like this.

You know who I thought kind of got the raw of the coaching deal that nobody ever mentions because his successor has 10 rings as a coach? Doug Collins.

In 1988 Chicago won 50 games and advanced in the playoffs for the first time since the the fall of Rome. In 1989 the team won three fewer games, but Collins integrated 4 new starters while losing his best big man defender and rebounder, AND they advanced to the conference finals and extended the eventual champs to 6 games.

He was fired the next year, and while no one can say anything bad about Phil Jackson's results, can we really be sure Doug Collins wasn't on the same path? Pippen and Grant were evolving from young athletes to serious ballers. The end result in the playoffs in 1990 was one more win than in 1989, not a dramatic post-season improvement (in fact Jordan left the playoffs that year in tears after they lost to Detroit for the 3rd year in a row).

Given that the young Bulls were naturally improving, and the aging Pistons were naturally deteriorating, it almost seems inevitable that Chicago would have won a ring pretty soon. Now 6 rings in 8 years balancing all those egos, that's another story. But did Collins deserve an axe for his tenure in Chicago? I don't think so.

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