Doug Collins’ timing always seemed to be a little off.
Whether it was being robbed out of a gold medal in the infamous 1972 Olympics against the Soviet Union, being removed as Bulls coach just before the Michael Jordan-Phil Jackson duo grabbed six Larry O’Brien Trophies and cemented itself on the Mount Rushmore of NBA dynasties, or being brought back in as an advisor in 2017 to try and clean-up the organizational mess that proved uncleanable, Collins seemed to make a career out of being on the wrong side of luck.
That changed on Saturday, as the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced that Collins will be inducted into the Class of 2024.
“Doug Collins’ basketball accomplishments are special,” Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said in a statement. “Doug did enough to be an Olympic basketball star. He was one of the NBA’s best guards and an All-Star four consecutive seasons before knee surgery prematurely ended his playing career. He then became a premier NBA coach who coached an All-Star game and a Basketball Hall of Fame
Gowdy Award winner for his broadcasting and TV game analysis.
“But Doug, who is a dear friend, also holds a special place in the hearts of Chicago Bulls fans and the franchise as the coach who started the climb toward the great dynasty of the 1990s by leading the Bulls and Michael Jordan to the franchise’s first 50-win season and conference finals appearance in more than a decade and later returning as an adviser and mentor to Bulls staff and coaches in the Tex Winter tradition.”
All true, but Collins didn’t just make a mark with the Bulls and Team USA. He was chosen to be inducted because the Hall of Fame takes the entire basketball resume into consideration, and there are few that stack up with the former Benton High School standout.
Collins was a first-team All-American at Illinois State in 1973 after the Olympic controversy, was a four-time All-Star with the Philadelphia 76ers, and then began a career in coaching and television broadcasting that really led to his wealth of basketball knowledge being put on full display.
His direct interaction with the Bulls, however, started in May of 1986, when he was named the team’s head coach, and immediately seemed to harness the star ability of a young Jordan and get the
organization pointed in the right direction.
That included a 50-32 record in just his second season, and an Eastern Conference Finals appearance against Detroit’s bad boys a year later.
Unable to get by the Pistons, Collins was fired in the summer of 1989.
Between coaching gigs with Detroit, Washington and Philadelphia, Collins was a standout broadcaster with almost every major network that carried the NBA, but his days with the Bulls weren’t finished.
In 2017, then-executive John Paxson brought Collins in as an adviser, trying to clean up the behind-the-scenes drama that was going on.
The Sun-Times reported that Collins didn’t like the leadership skills of former coach Fred Hoiberg and had a say in his eventual dismissal, but also had issues with former general manager Gar
Forman.
There was a standstill on removing Forman, however, and that didn’t sit well with Collins. By the time Paxson was set to step down and the Arturas Karnisovas regime was put in place in 2020, Collins had quietly stepped away.
Joining Collins in the Class of ’24 was Chauncey Billups, Vince Carter, Michael Cooper, Walter Davis, Bo Ryan, Charles Smith, Seimone Augustus, Dick Barnett, Harley Redin, Michele Timms, Herb Simon, and Jerry West.
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