Let’s back up and look at Doug Collins.

My early memories were of Doug playing for the 76er’s, swooping to the hole and making a layup or drilling jumper after jumper. He played on the great Dr. J’s teams. He averaged over 17 points a game for his career.

Doug also played on the Olympic team that the Russians beat after the ref’s kept giving them do over’s until they scored the winning basket. Ok, so that one still bothers me. You can’t let everything go.

After retiring as a player, Doug went on to coaching. He got his first walking papers as Michael Jordan’s stubborn coach.

“We knocked heads early,” Collins said at the time. “I was 35, had never been a head coach before, was going to roll up my sleeves to show everybody that I could get the job done. I wanted to do things my way.”

Collins was fired and replaced by Phil Jackson, whose first team also lost to Detroit in the conference finals, 4-3. The following season the Bulls broke through, sweeping the Pistons 4-0 and going on to the first of six championships in the 90s with Jordan and Scottie Pippen leading the way. In 1995-96, they finished 72-10 as what many consider to be the greatest NBA team of all time.

Collins accepted his second head coaching job in 1995 and worked 2 1/2 seasons with the Pistons, going 46-36, 54-28 and 21-24 before he was let go amid reports his style caused friction with some of his players.

He was 37-45 in both seasons in Washington but couldn’t get the Wizards into the playoffs. He was fired shortly after Jordan was denied a return to the front office.

Collins’ overall record is 332-287 and 15-23 in the postseason.

source

Here is a YouTube breaking the Chicago Bulls news of hiring Doug Collins.

Now being a huge Piston fans, the early Chicago years were followed and the Piston years were followed. Doug was tough, demanding, and a my way or the highway guy. He could make a weak team strong, but could not make a good team great.

Speaking of great, after a while Doug grated on you and you did not want to play for him anymore.

Now after Chicago experienced the tough, demanding, my way or the highway Scott Skiles, why would they sign Doug Collins?

The Bulls and Collins, who coached a young Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen before the 1990s dynasty took off, acknowledged Thursday discussing a return engagement. The sides also said there would be more talks once Collins’ obligations with TNT ended, which happened when the Los Angeles Lakers eliminated the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference finals that night.

And Collins was adamant during a pregame interview with TNT: “I have not been offered. I have not accepted.”

On Friday, general manager John Paxson did not return a call to his cell phone, and Collins’ representative John Langel declined comment. A message seeking comment was left Friday night on Collins’ cell phone.

source

The Bulls will have the number one pick in the draft, probably Derrick Rose of Memphis.

Does this sound like a do over of young Michael Jordan and Doug Collins?

Only Derrick Rose is not Michael Jordan and young Doug Collins had better not be old Doug Collins!

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You talking to me?

The Bulls are going no where in the NBA this season.

That means you have to blame someone.

They did. They fired the coach, Scott Skiles.

Oh, it was going to happen sometime anyway. Scotty is too fiery to last too long with any pro team. He probably should be coaching in college where a coach can really rule over the team.

When you have Scott’s attitude and your team begins to lose, you will begin to lose your team. It is part of the package in NBA Basketball.

You hire Skiles as a coach and you get better, like with Brown. He’s smart and demanding. Those are good things. He sees the game more quickly and clearly than most coaches working today. He has a plan and a system of play that’s appealing to watch. He emphasizes the right things: defense, teamwork and accountability.

I’d recommend Skiles to just about any team in the NBA.

Like Brown, he tires of his players, in part because his standards are so high. source

It was not all Scott

Scott was not the sole problem in Chicago. Scott gave his all and wore out his message, but the Bulls have problems beyond Scott Skiles.

First there were the failed expectations of the Ben Wallace deal. Ben was on the downhill slope of his career and fit perfectly into the Pistons roster. Chicago thought it would work for them just as well. It didn’t.

Then there were some major gaffes by the GM John Paxson.

There were no major acquisitions in the off-season. Instead, the most notable moves were the ones the Bulls did not make — contract extensions for Ben Gordon and Deng and a blockbuster trade for Kobe Bryant.

And Deng finally acknowledged the negotiations and trade talk may have weighed down the team.

“I keep saying the whole idea that the contract thing isn’t a big deal with me, but it’s getting to a point where I don’t know,” he said. “It’s not like I came in and said I’m not going to play hard. It’s a life-changing decision. When I made the decision, I decided that I’m just going to play. It became part of it because that’s what people kept talking about. We struggled and they kept coming up.” source

They had better think about getting Kobe, because things just are not working as they are now.

Scott explodes through college

Scott played his college ball at Michigan State University and you never saw a guy fuller of spit and fire than Scott. He was linked to some drinking problems in his junior year and had other problems with cocaine and weed before that.

His college coach, Jud Heathcote, came to Scott and asked him if he would prefer to redshirt and not have to face all the hostile fans, while court dates and stuff were going one. Jud reasoned a lot of it would die down in a year.

Scott said no. Bring it on. And bring it on they did. Opposing fans were merciless and booed and chanted at him in every arena. All Scott did was play out of his gourd.

Scott ended his career as All American, Big Ten MVP, Big Ten Scoring Champion, and All time scoring leader for MSU.

Scott has always been me against the world.

NBA Basketball Fan Question What should the Bulls do now?

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Post from: NBA Obsessed