Collins to coach in Phili?

by Adam Harris

There is an extremely great chance that Doug Collins will not be the Chicago Bulls coach next season.

Talk around the league indicates that the Philadelphia 76ers could have an offer on the table for Collins as early as next week to be their next head coach. The only question left is will Doug Collins accept?

Collins is currently working on TNT as an analyst for the Western Conference finals, so he would have to leave his comfy TV gig to go back to the day-in day-out grind as a NBA coach.

After the Washington Wizards fired Collins in '03, he was in conversation with a couple NBA teams to make a comeback as a coach or a GM. He turned down the Milwaukee Bucks general manager position in '08, and also took himself out of the race for the Chicago Bulls head coaching position that same year.

These scenarios had their reason's for working out the way they did, but the bottom line is that Collins did not want to leave TV to get back into the management and coaching department of the NBA, so why do the Philadelphia 76ers think he is ready now?

He has not coached since '03, therefore he is not used to the crazy, intense grind that being an NBA coach entails. The team does have talent, but I feel that the act of hiring Collins is an attempt to stir up interest in the franchise from its fans, and not a smart move to improve their record.

Collins is a smart basketball mind, and a great coach, but I feel his time has run out on his ability to relate to the players and this style of basketball as compared to the days when he was coaching the Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons in the late '80s and mid '90s.

This move would put fans in the seats for the first half of the year, but a bad record late in the season will cause the same problem in Philadelphia as there is now, not much interest.