Doug Collins (basketball)

Paul Douglas "Doug" Collins (born July 28, 1951) is a retired American basketball player. He was the top pick of the 1973 NBA Draft and a four-time NBA All-Star. He is currently the head coach of the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers.

High school and college
Collins enjoyed a successful high school basketball career at Benton High School in Benton, Illinois, under renowned coach Rich Herrin, after which he went on to play for Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois, in 1969.

1972 Olympics
Collins was chosen to represent the United States at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany. While those games are mainly remembered for the terrorist attack that left eleven Israeli athletes dead, there was also the controversial gold medal basketball game between the United States and the Soviet Union, in which Collins played a key part. The United States was undefeated in Olympic basketball competition history, and widely expected to remain undefeated after these Olympics. After Collins hit two free throws near the end of the final game, the United States had a 50–49 lead. However, confusion over a timeout call and subsequent issues with the game clock led the game's officials to re-start the game's final three seconds two times. On their final attempt, the Soviets made a lay-up to take a lead. This gave the U.S. its first ever Olympic loss by a 51–50 margin.

Playing career
After that controversial game, Collins went on to be drafted by the Denver Nuggets of the American Basketball Association. In a 1973 supplementary draft, he was chosen by the New York Nets. Despite being drafted by ABA teams, he never played in that league, instead choosing to play in the NBA, where he had been the number one overall pick in the 1973 NBA Draft, picked by the Philadelphia 76ers. He only played 25 games his rookie year, the 1973–74 season, averaging 8 points per game.

His numbers improved substantially over the next few seasons, scoring almost 18 points and dishing out 2.6 assists while getting almost 4 rebounds per game in 81 games played during 1974–75 season, and then scoring 20.8 points per game and grabbing four rebounds per game in 1975–76. Collins made four All-Star teams in the late 1970s.

He kept tallying an average of about 19 points and four rebounds per game for the next three seasons, as the 76ers reached the NBA Finals during 1976–77 season. Although the team featured Julius Erving, among others, the Sixers could not overcome Bill Walton and the Portland Trail Blazers in those finals, losing four games to two.

During the 1978–79 season, Collins suffered a serious injury, which limited him to only 47 games that year, and eventually forced him into retirement as a basketball player. His last season was 1980–81, in which he would only play 12 games before announcing his retirement.

Collins scored a total of 7,427 points in 415 NBA games, for an average of 17.9 points per game, while grabbing 1,339 rebounds for 3.2 per game, and passing for 1,368 assists, averaging 3.3 assists a game. As the three point shots were new to basketball when Collins retired, he only took one of those during his NBA career, missing it.

Early coaching career
After his retirement, Collins turned to coaching. He joined Bob Weinhauer's staff at the University of Pennsylvania as an assistant coach and later followed Weinhauer to Arizona State for the same job. Collins took his first head coaching job with the Chicago Bulls in 1986, where he coached Michael Jordan and a young Scottie Pippen. He led the Bulls to a string of playoff appearances, including their best record in 15 years and an Eastern Conference Finals Appearance. However, they were unable to advance to the Finals, and Collins was replaced by assistant Phil Jackson in 1989.

Coach of the Pistons
Collins was named the head coach of the Detroit Pistons in 1995, and in his first season was able to improve the team's previous season's record by 18 games. In 1997 he coached the Eastern Conference All-Star team. He served as Pistons' head coach until February 2, 1998, when he was fired and replaced by Alvin Gentry. Collins then became a television broadcaster, working for many years at various networks, such as NBC on the NBA on NBC and TNT on the NBA on TNT.

Coach of the Wizards
He worked as a broadcaster for about five years, before being hired to coach the Washington Wizards, before the start of the 2001–02 NBA season. In Washington, Collins was reunited with Michael Jordan and Charles Oakley. Once again, in his first season with his new team, Collins improved the team's previous season's record by 18 games. Though his .451 winning percentage through 2 seasons was better than the Wizards' .308 record the previous 2 seasons (and subsequent .305 record the following season), Collins was fired at the conclusion of the 2002–03 season, and he returned to announcing games for TNT. Collins' Wizards led the NBA in attendance during his 2 year stay, though it was mainly due to Jordan's decision to return from retirement.

Return to broadcasting
Collins served as the analyst for NBC Sports TV coverage of basketball at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

After being fired by the Wizards in 2003, Collins' name surfaced several times regarding head coaching vacancies. In 2005, he was a candidate for the Milwaukee Bucks job but was passed over for Terry Stotts. Collins was approached by the team again in 2008 to serve as their GM and coach but turned them down again. In May 2008, Collins was in negotiations to coach the Chicago Bulls, nearly 20 years after he was fired from the team. However, Collins withdrew his name when he and owner Jerry Reinsdorf "agreed it wasn't the best to keep going this way," in light of their close personal friendship.

Coach of the 76ers
On May 21, 2010, Collins was hired as head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers. While the 76ers initially started out poorly with a record of 3-13, the team showed improvement as the season went on, and clinched the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference for the playoffs. Under Collins, the team increased its win total by 14 games over the previous season, and made their third playoff appearance in four years. They lost to the eventual Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat in the first round, but were able to avoid a sweep that had been predicted. Collins finished second in Coach of the Year voting that season.

In the lockout-shortened 2011-2012 season, Collins led the Sixers to an improved record, but Philadelphia was only able to take the eighth seed in the playoffs. Against the top seeded Chicago Bulls, Collins led the Sixers to their first playoff series victory since 2003. It was the fifth time in NBA history that an eighth seed defeated a first seed in a playoff series. They took the next series against the Boston Celtics to seven games, but lost.

Personal life
Doug and his wife Kathy have two children. They reside in the Delaware Valley. Their son Chris, a former professional basketball player, is now an assistant coach at Duke University and their daughter Kelly, who played basketball at Lehigh University, is a school teacher in Pennsylvania.

Honors
Illinois State University's basketball court is named after Collins (Doug Collins Court at Redbird Arena). A statue depicting Collins and his ISU coach, Will Robinson, was unveiled on September 19, 2009, outside the north entrance of Redbird Arena.