Michael Jordan quit basketball in 1998, saying he was too old and had been around too long to play for a coach other than Phil Jackson.
The implication was the Bulls were pushing Jackson out as coach, so in effect, they were pushing Jordan out.
Three years later Jordan is coming back to the NBA. Not with Jackson, who has coached the Lakers to the last two NBA titles, but with Doug Collins as his coach, whom Jackson replaced on the Bulls’ bench in 1989. Jordan won six titles with Jackson and frequently said Jackson’s steadying hand was critical to the development of the team.
The implication was the Bulls couldn’t have won those titles with Collins as coach.
So now they are together, apparently as odd–and talented–a couple as there has been in the NBA.
“I always said when Michael was in his prime, whatever team he was on would be a contender,” said Seattle general manager Rick Sund, who held that job in Detroit when Collins coached the Pistons. “There’s no way to predict what the Wizards will be, but they have two awesome elements in Doug as a coach and the best player who ever played the game.”
There’s no question Collins is a superb coach. The Bulls won 30 games the season before he joined them in 1986-87. They won 40 games in his first season, then 50 for the first time in 14 years the next season and went to the conference finals for the first time since 1975 in his third season. And then he was fired.
It was much the same with the Pistons, whom he joined in 1995-96. They hadn’t been above .500 since Chuck Daly’s last season in 1991-92. They won 46 games in Collins’ first season and 54 in his second. He was fired midway through his third season, when he was wrung out personally and had worn out the team with his demanding nature. The Pistons haven’t come close to 50 wins since.
Collins drives his players to the point they drive him from the sideline.
Jordan knows this, and though he didn’t run Collins out of the old Chicago Stadium, he didn’t stand in management’s way. The popular rumor that Jordan had Collins fired is not true. Management was at odds with Collins and believed the team was about to crack. Jordan was told of the plan to fire Collins and was asked if he would stand in the way. He didn’t believe the team had the backbone to fire the popular Collins and replace him with the bookish Jackson. But he said he wouldn’t stand in the way.
The rest, of course, became NBA history, and perhaps the greatest bond ever between a star athlete and his coach.
Though Collins coached again and became the NBA’s top TV analyst, he privately yearned for Jordan’s acceptance and acknowledged that when Jordan called and asked for his help last spring, he could not refuse.
Jordan prefers to surround himself with familiar faces such as executives Rod Higgins and Darrell Walker, so Collins is a comfort zone. But friends worry for Collins, because who can really coach Jordan?
“I thought it was a great situation for Doug when Michael was an executive and hired him,” said one longtime friend of Collins who is an NBA coach. “I thought they would work well together when Michael was president. But with Michael going back as a player, the question is what can Doug do. I think it takes away Doug’s greatest strength because he is so good at motivating and getting the best out of a young team. Can he operate with someone like Michael, who’ll need to show he can still be a great player?
“No one really cares what went on between Michael and Doug in Chicago, but it’s important to Doug. It will be interesting to see how it works out.”
