After concluding his injury-riddled playing career in 1981, Doug Collins immediately ventured into coaching. He spent a few years as an assistant coach in college before getting his shot in the NBA in 1986.
Interestingly, Collins' first coaching job in the Association happened to be taking charge of the Chicago Bulls . One can only imagine how nervous he was in his first-ever contest. Fortunately, Michael Jordan was there to ease his burden and promise him the win.
A tough challenge from the Knickerbockers
Most coaches would probably not admit it, but chances are they want to take home the victory in their coaching debut. There's nothing like starting a career on the right note. However, Collins' maiden game as a coach came against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
Naturally, New York offered a tough challenge, scoring the first eight points of the fourth quarter to rally for an 81-77 lead. As usual, though, Jordan delivered the clutch heroics. He scored 50, eclipsing his regular-season career-high then by a point. Michael also added six rebounds, four steals, and three blocks to keep his promise to Collins via a 108-103 victory.
It took three more games before Collins finally experienced a professional loss as a coach. Chicago defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers and San Antonio Spurs following the season opener, but the Detroit Pistons eked out a 115-109 win to drop the Bulls to 3-1 early in the campaign.
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A fruitful partnership
After that, the duo won many more games, and the Bulls amassed a 137-109 record during the three-year Collins era. Their time together had to end in 1989, as the franchise wanted to move in a different direction following two straight losses to the Pistons in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
The move turned out to be the right one for Chicago, even if Jordan didn't appear too thrilled about it.
Bringing in Phil Jackson allowed the Bulls to reach another level, and who knows if they would have experienced the same success had they stuck to Collins. To be fair to the recent Hall of Fame inductee, he had a hand in establishing the culture that Jackson built on.
Even so, the former No. 1 draft pick managed to maintain a strong friendship over the years. Jordan even showed his loyalty to Collins by hiring the latter as the Washington Wizards' coach in the 2001 offseason. Months later, "His Airness" came out of retirement for the second time, recombining the player-coach tandem.
Coincidentally, the Wizards' first contest of the 2001-02 campaign was against the Knicks. However, MJ couldn't offer any heroics that time around, as he put up 19 points in Washington's two-point loss.
Related: "We'd be the L.A. Clippers" - Doug Collins on what life would be for the Bulls without MJ
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