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42The TarteelThursdayv July. 20r 1989
Doyg Collins a victim"
of Bolls' mismanagement
ELLIOT ROAD
I
FRANKLIN
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Poor Doug Collins.
One of the most successful coaches
in the history of the Chicago Bulls,
Collins was fired on July 6 a day,
that in Chicago, will live in infamy
in just a few short months.
Collins was one of the bright young
coaches in the NBA and, in his three
years with ther Bulls, he directed the
team as though he had a greater vi
sion in mind.
. It appeared as if he had a vision of
a great basketball team in which no
one player is any more important than
the others. He had a vision of the
great Michael Jordan leading his team "
by averaging just 20 points per game.
He had a vision of B.J. Armstrong
leading the fastbreak while Stacey
King and Jeff Sanders filled the lanes.
Now, he has a vision of the pink slip.
To the Bulls and to basketball,
Collins has been an AU-American
success story. He was an AU-American
at Illinois State, a member of the
U.S. Olympic team in 1972 and a
four-time All-Star in eight seasons
with the Philadelphia 76ers. He had
a winning record in three years with
the Bulls and led them on a remark
able run in the NBA playoffs this
past season. However, with the Bulls,
he has had his hands tied.
Collins was the head coach. He
was not the general manager, the
president or the owner and, because
of that, he did not have free reign to
build the team he wanted. He had to
work with Michael Jordan.
Now, starting a team with Jordan
is a great way to begin, but if that's
where it ends as well, it becomes
tough to win. Collins knew this and
it got him fired.
As mentioned before, Collins has
the idea that team isn't spelled with
an "I," and that it takes five players
working together to win consistently
in the NBA. However, team owner
Jerry Reinsdorf and operations di
rector Jerry Krause seemed to see it
differently.
To win in the NBA from an
owner's standpoint is to fill the stands
and normally, to fill the stands, a
team must be successful on the court
However, a phenom named Jordan
plays in Chicago. He is the best player
in the NBA (though arguments could
be made for Magic and a healthy
Bird), and his ability to score 40 points
a night with such amazing agility
draws crowds by itself. Collins tried
several times to tamper with the Re
insdorfKrause model for success, and
this time he got the ax.
In Collins' first season, he had a
special project named Charles Oakley
who loved to rebound. But Oakley
couldn't throw the ball in the ocean
if he was on the QE 2, so Collins
worked with the 6-foot-10 Oakley.
Ghostbusters II cpg)
1:45 4:15 7:oo 9:30
Weekend At Bernies (pgi3
2:00430 7:15 9:45
DDoug Hoogervorst
Staff Writer
After a season and a half, Oakley
voiced that it was time for him to get
some shots instead of it being the MJ
show night after night. Collins satis
fied his big guy, working the ball
more to Oakley toward the end of the
year. The Bulls finished with 50 wins
that season and Oakley was given a .
one-way ticket to the Big Apple for
taking some of Michael's shots (or
dollars at the gate).
Then, at the draft and with Oakley
gone, Collins begged for a scorer to
help ease the burden from his super
human, Jordan. He got Will Perdue.
Ugh.
That's enough to get any coach
fed up, and rumors circulated that
Collins would leave Chicago if he
didn't get more input. Krause and
Reinsdorf semi-concurred and gave
Collins a present, signing free-agent
gunner Craig Hodges.
Hodges can play a role on a con
tending team, but he is not an offen
sive burden lifter. Thus, Jordan had
to continue to shoulder the load on
offense.
As this past season ran on, Mi
chael took offense to his having to be
the offense. Jordan pointed out,
through the press, that there are five
players on the floor (he learned that
from Dean Smith), and the press
hounded Collins for "over-using"
Jordan.
Collins, though, had a problem
counting on the other four players. It
seems that the rest of the Bulls either
had Dr. JekyllMr. Hyde complexes
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7:00 9:30 HURRY! MUINCHAUJbiN
TIMOTHY DALT0N
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JAMES BOND 007
Experience
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KINTEK
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Licence
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or were Dave Corzine clones. Scottie
Pippen looked like George Gervin
one night, Curious George the next.
The same went for Horace Grant,
Charlie Davis, Jim Paxson and Sam
Vincent. And as for Brad Sellers, Bill
Cartwright and Will Perdue, they
seemed to think that gray-haired,
outside-shooting big guys who can't
run were in demand. So Collins looked
bad because he had to rely on Jordan
so heavily.
To resolve his problems, Collins
convinced Krause to let him draft
this year, and he picked three impact
players in King, Armstrong and Sand
ers. Together, in college, the three
averaged more than 70 points per
game last season, more than twice
Jordan's output. Adding Collins'
genius draft to his development work
with Pippen and Grant, Krause and
Reinsdorf realized that they and
Collins had "philosophical differ
ences." "We appreciate the effort Doug
Collins has given over the past three
years," Reinsdorf said. "However,
throughout the years, philosophical
differences between management and
Doug over the direction of the club
grew to a point where the move was
required."
Obviously, the difference Re
insdorf referred to is over winning.
Collins believes in winning on the
court, and Reinsdorf already knows
he's winning at the gate. It's too bad
he doesn't realize that a winning team
on the court leads to a winning team
at the gate.
Read the DTH
for the best news
on campus
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