WASHINGTON - The life of a basketball television analyst is a good one, what with your weekdays free and the ability to live where and how you want.
That lifestyle is so good, in fact, that it took a special phone call to drag Doug Collins out of it, namely one from Michael Jordan, the man who defined Collins' early coaching career in Chicago.
Jordan, the Wizards' president of basketball operations, had been warming Collins up to the prospect of coaching the chronically woeful team for about two weeks and got Collins to sign on here yesterday, replacing Leonard Hamilton, who abruptly resigned after Wednesday's season finale.
"A lot of people say why, why do this? It's easy. Because Michael Jordan called me on the phone and he said, `I need you. I need your help.' Once he said that, I knew this was the place for me to be," said Collins, who is in the option year of his four-year contract with NBC. "When he told me he would be there for me on a daily basis as we try to get this right, that's all I needed to know."
He'll continue with NBC through the playoffs and then assume full duties as Wizards coach. And so, the two men, who first bonded 15 years ago when Collins took over the Chicago Bulls in Jordan's second season, re-form their partnership. The goal this time is to straighten out a Wizards team that has had only five winning seasons in the past 20, and just set a franchise record for most losses in a single season at 19-63.
Collins, who coached three seasons in Chicago before he was fired after the 1988-89 season and worked in Detroit for another three seasons, is under no illusions that his job will be easy. He'll be the Wizards' fifth coach in seven years. Reclamation projects are nothing new to Collins.
He was the first player chosen in the 1973 NBA draft, by Philadelphia - which lost 73 of 82 games that year for the worst record in league history. And he inherited bad teams in Chicago and Detroit.
"If you know my background, you would know that I have never started at the top," said Collins. "I have never inherited a rose garden. I have always worked hard to try and make the place that I have been better after I have left. That has always been my goal."
The process of bringing Collins aboard began almost two weeks ago when Jordan and Hamilton spoke about the former coach's future with the team. Jordan said that Hamilton, who had not coached professionally before he left the University of Miami after 10 seasons, expressed concern about his desire to coach in the NBA.
