Brian Spurlock – USA Today Sports
Doug Collins is someone for whom I’ve always had the utmost respect; I’ve also felt truly bad for him because he has endured quite a lot of hardships in his basketball career. He had a gold medal taken out of his grasp in the infamous USA-Russia gold medal game.
He then had his career prematurely end because of an ACL tear; the medical technology was not what it is today and an ACL tear was essentially a retirement notice.
He was also Michael Jordan’s coach in Chicago right before Phil Jackson (ouch). Collins is now leaving his head coaching position with the Philadelphia 76ers to spend more time with his son and grandkids. He has earned that right, but he will surely be missed. Hopefully, he will still do play by play every now and then.
“There’s a lot of things I want to enjoy,” he said. “I think it’s every man’s dream to be able to live that life that you’ve worked so hard to try and live. That’s what I want to do.”
He will be missed by the 76ers, but he will remain as part of the organization in an adviser type role.
“Why wouldn’t you want a great coach to come back and be your coach?” team owner Josh Harris said. “But at the time, I respect his desires as a man. There’s no resentment. I feel like we are going to build a high-quality organization and will attract a high-quality coach.”
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