Hiring Doug Collins Is No Reason to Break Out the Champagne

There are not many lines of work where someone fired three times in 8 years is considered a hot commodity. But such is the case with Doug Collins. In his brief coaching career, he was let go by the Bulls, Pistons and Wizards before he went into broadcasting. He also has the distinction of being the only NBA coach to fail to win a championship with Michael Jordan. Now we're told he has a brilliant basketball mind and is the man best suited to lead the Sixer franchise back to the glory days.

For a while, it seemed that it was the beautiful and complicated mind of Larry Brown the Sixers coveted, but perhaps because of Brown's age and assorted personal baggage, the Philly franchise opted for a younger version of their former coach. Like Brown, Collins is also described as a consummate teacher. And while Collins is a fast and glib talker, he, again like Brown, has been to known to antagonize quite a few people along the way. Ironically, it is this latter trait which is supposed to have led to the foreshortening of Jim O'Brien's tenure in South Philly.

At his first press conference at the Wachovia Center, Collins singled out defense as priority one. Whether that was an indication of brilliance I'm not sure. Anyone who saw the Sixers for more than 5 minutes in the last couple of seasons should have been able to identify the team's defense as porous at best.

But the question is what do you do about it. This is not plugging an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. This is convincing highly paid young athletes to contest the other team's jump shooters. In other words, running at a shooter with your arms in the air. Very sophisticated stuff.

Why these players should pay more attention to Doug Collins than Randy Ayers, O'Brien, Mo Cheeks, Tony DiLeo or Eddie Jordan is not immediately obvious and we should not be surprised if down the road Collins becomes another ex-coach still on the team's payroll. Larry Brown may end up running this club after all.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of all of this is that Ed Stefanski still has a job with the franchise. Harry Houdini would be impressed.