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This is a pretty interesting depiction of what Sam Smith believed was the reason Collins was fired. He also touches upon the same "lifestyle" issues that Mac did - also without explanation. (Note: I apologize for the formatting but I figured it's better than giving a link to a paywall.)
This story originally ran in the Chicago Tribune on July 9, 1989
The Bulls had just lost to the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference finals early last month, yet people were feeling good about Chicago’s National Basketball Association team.
And the surest sign of that was that people were feeling good about Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, whose threats to move the White Sox and sacking of Harry Caray had made him about as popular in Chicago as the ticks that carry Lyme disease.
''Someone came up to me in a mall this morning and thanked me for a great season, for the Bulls being such an exciting team,'' Reinsdorf related to an associate. ''It looks like even I’m making a comeback.''
Which made it all the more unlikely that Reinsdorf would risk achieving insect status again by firing his popular coach, Doug Collins, without an explanation.
Yet, that’s just what Reinsdorf did.
Why?
Well, it certainly would have been easier to let Collins stay, even if Reinsdorf wanted him out. He owes Collins another year’s salary-which Collins will collect-the team exceeded everyone’s expectations and good will toward the organization was at an all-time high. If Reinsdorf thought Collins was about to fail with the Bulls, why not let him do so and then fire him?
Because, as hard as it might be to digest at this time, Reinsdorf believed he saw a bleak crash coming for his team and Collins, and he decided to take action before the results turned disastrous for both.
Granted, it’s hard to see the future. But Reinsdorf felt he saw what was becoming of Collins and the Bulls, even if most outside the organization didn’t.
Reinsdorf saw a developing disintegration of his team, with virtually every player angered and frustrated by playing for Collins and several even plotting to cause the coach an embarrassment that might get him fired.
Reinsdorf saw a driven, insecure Collins, grasping desperately to succeed while fighting madly not to fail. He saw his coach missing sleep and meals and breaking down in his office over the pressures of the job.
Reinsdorf saw Collins’ staff being splintered apart by his egoism. The top assistant, Phil Jackson, who most likely will be the Bulls’ next coach, was given the silent treatment by Collins, and his venerable ace assistant, Tex Winter, was barred from practices for a time because he dared speak his opinion about Collins’ coaching mistakes.
Reinsdorf saw Collins running out players he didn’t want, such as Charles Oakley, then not utilizing his replacement, Bill Cartwright. He saw Collins, after agreeing to use draft choices for specified amounts of time during the season, banish last year’s No. 1 pick, Will Perdue, to the bench.
Reinsdorf saw his general manager, Jerry Krause, persuade him to hire Collins and then watched Collins try to get Krause fired so he could have his job, too.
Reinsdorf saw his superstar, Michael Jordan, being burned up by Collins, whose insecurity-driven style wouldn’t allow him to adequately rest Jordan.
Reinsdorf saw Collins burning the candle at both ends, a fiery, driven coach on the floor and a man given to excess in his lifestyle off the floor.
Here was this gleaming, powerful locomotive of a coach barreling down the track at punishing speeds, seemingly heading in the right direction.
But the brakes weren’t working, and the bolts were coming loose, and just around the hill there were unseen dangers.
Jerry Reinsdorf hit the brakes for his coach, and to all it appeared unnecessary.
But maybe people need victims to truly assess a tragedy.
- - -
The irony of Collins’ dismissal last week after three successful seasons as the Bulls` coach is that much of it is blamed on Krause, considered Collins’ longtime rival.
But it was Krause who had the most to lose by Collins` firing because it was he who fought hard for Collins` hiring. Reinsdorf wanted no part of Collins.
''You mean the TV guy?'' he said then.
But Reinsdorf respects Krause’s judgment and let the general manager have his choice. But not before Reinsdorf sat with Collins for 5 hours and videotaped their meeting. He did so because when he hired Stan Albeck, he recalled once, ''I talked and he shook his head, so I thought we were in agreement. This time I listened.''
And Collins said all the right things. He was a defensive coach. He believed you put players in position to succeed by asking them to do only what they do well, as Don Nelson does. He believed in an up-tempo style, conducive to management’s plan of drafting quick players. He believed in playing youngsters. He knew Jordan needed rest and wouldn’t gear the entire offense toward him.
Reinsdorf, friends say, has watched that tape many times recently, often remarking that if Collins had kept his word, there wouldn’t have been problems.
Yet, early on, Collins split with Krause and angled for his job, and this deeply offended Reinsdorf.
Reinsdorf is a curious man, as many with great riches are. Despite his wealth, he almost always drives on vacations.
''I love driving because that’s where I do my best thinking,'' he once said.
He doesn’t seek out publicity or recognition, mostly staying home evenings.
He also is equally old-fashioned enough to have high ethical standards. One can’t say much for his sense of public relations, but he values morality. Collins’ effort to dump Krause struck him as highly immoral. In addition, Reinsdorf frowned on Collins’ lifestyle.
There was nothing illegal in that lifestyle, just that it was more like a player’s. That’s not surprising, because Collins was so young and close to playing age after being forced to retire prematurely because of knee injuries. But Reinsdorf was worried about the influence such behavior might have on young and undisciplined players such as Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant.
And it was risky even bringing Collins in to coach. He was an excellent broadcaster, probably the best in the basketball business, but had little coaching experience. Tying him to the responsibility of guiding a young team in a major city with a superstar such as Jordan just seemed to exacerbate the pressures.
Some players said Collins changed dramatically in his three seasons. Where once he was supportive, last season he became exceedingly critical. Where once he was an accessible ''players' coach,'' last season he locked himself away to watch films for hours on end.
Many players then came to resent what they called his ''I won, they lost'' syndrome, saying that in his postgame analyses he too often listed himself as the only one who did all he could for the victory. He yanked reserves in and out in short spurts, then said he had no bench.
Many also resented Collins` taking credit for motivating the players, the assumption being that without him they were a slothful bunch who just came to collect their paychecks. It was a tactic that irritated many in management, because the Bulls went to great lengths to draft and sign motivated, hard-working, good-citizen type players after inheriting the likes of Quintin Dailey and Orlando Woolridge.
The publicity surrounding player-coach rifts usually centered on Jordan, and Jordan had his problems with Collins. But he did not have Collins fired. Jordan always worried about being perceived the way the Lakers` Magic Johnson was after he supposedly had Paul Westhead fired, and his disputes with Collins were often minor compared to some that other players had.
During the season, three players, including two starters, conspired to catch Collins in some situation that might prove embarrassing enough to get him fired, so intense was some of the resentment.
Players such as Brad Sellers and Sam Vincent became dispirited by Collins’ constant abuse, eventually proving of little use. Management despaired when it obtained Cartwright for Oakley and then Collins became reluctant to use Cartwright in key situations. They kept getting Collins point guards, an average of two a season, and he kept demanding new ones in his apparent inability to turn the offense over to any of them.
He had agreed to play Perdue an average of about 10 minutes a game, depending on situations, but essentially sat Perdue out for the season. And he had three more youngsters coming in this season.
He drove Jordan almost to mutiny before the heralded change to point guard in March by constantly putting him in ''must-score'' situations after not calling his plays at other times in the game. Even Jordan realized he was being overused, and asked out of his point guard role after the season.
Collins often abused players during games with loud accusations of ineptitude and streams of epithets that occasionally were aimed at the stands- even at home-in tense situations.
He warred with his assistants and discouraged their participation in the media (a common financial source for NBA assistants) to prevent them from gaining higher profiles.
He always viewed Jackson as a rival and had associates report to him on whom Jackson talked to. He blew up and became sharply defensive of critiques of his coaching.
But Collins was not incapable as a coach. He is bright and has a quick mind and was always fast to adjust in the chess match that NBA games become.
Yet, his inexperience was a glaring weakness. He never truly developed a philosophy for the game. Veterans who came to the Bulls were amazed by his lack of a plan from game to game, his constant series of changing plays and his insistence to management, despite its knowledge to the contrary, that he wasn’t creating new plays daily.
He had little feel for defense and turned that over to Jackson, who along with assistant John Bach developed that as the Bulls` major weapon outside of Jordan.
But none of this was a secret to Collins. In frequent sessions with Reinsdorf, these issues and others were discussed, with attorney Reinsdorf always taking notes.
Once he showed some notes, with observations, to a friend. Reinsdorf had scribbled in the margin: ''Wants to be Mike Ditka.''
Indeed, Collins was impressed by Ditka’s success and apparently was driven to duplicate it. And he moved in Ditka’s wake, picking up some commercials with his good looks, intelligence and articulate style and developed a positive image through his ease on camera on local TV and the success of the team.
But Reinsdorf also was among the few privy to the darker side and could see how the pressures of the job were getting to Collins.
But even as the Bulls were walking off the court after that sixth-game loss to Detroit, Reinsdorf apparently anticipated changes ahead.
''Doug was good for us three years ago,'' Reinsdorf reportedly told an associate. ''He was the kind of coach to get us to a certain level. But now we need to get to the next level. The question is, can he take us there?''
The answer he came to obviously was no.
_________________
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