Washington Post: Typical Misfire and Miscalculation

Typical Misfire and Miscalculation

By Thomas Boswell
Saturday, May 31, 2003; Page D01

The Washington Wizards should have fired Doug Collins weeks ago, soon after Michael Jordan left town. That would have been the classy and professional thing to do. Everybody in the NBA knew he was absolutely and totally history in Washington. He was Jordan's guy and M.J. had been fired. Instead, the Wizards let Collins twist in the wind. Why? Were they hoping that Collins might become so embarrassed at repeating "I still plan to coach the Wizards next year," that he would renegotiate some of the $10 million remaining on his contract in return for his professional freedom?

As is too often the case, the Wizards were clueless. They'd misread their man even though he'd worked for them for two years. Collins was in no hurry. He'll almost certainly go back to the TV booth next year. As Collins said from Hawaii yesterday, he's kicking back, getting ready to celebrate his 30th wedding anniversary and the wedding of a friend's daughter. Life is good. "I'm a grandpa," he said. He's going to visit friends and family around the country. Now, he can afford to go first class.

Slowly, the Wizards caught the drift. Of course, they needed hints. One by one, the Wizards put out feelers to the coaches they wanted to get to replace Collins -- Larry Brown (in their dreams), Jeff Van Gundy and Mike Fratello. Anybody who knows the unwritten codes of pro sports knows the answer they were going to get: "Doug's my friend. What coach is going to interview for another coach's job before he's even been fired?"

Finally, the Wizards got the picture. Collins's coaching buddies wouldn't even answer the Wizards' calls until they did right by Doug. In Friday's Washington Post, sources close to Larry Brown said as much. He wouldn't talk to the Wizards about being president of basketball operations and head coach as long as Collins still held the latter job.

"When it was reported Larry would not pursue a position that was not open," Collins said yesterday, "I figured that would trigger the dominoes."

When Collins awoke at 6 a.m. yesterday, he had four messages on his answering machine.

"Kathy," he said he said to his wife, "I think I've been fired."

"How do you know?" she said.

"It's 6 a.m. here [in Hawaii], and I already have four messages." And they were from the Wizards.

Often, coaches cry at such moments. Collins may have wept -- but with joy. For the record, Collins said he likes Abe Pollin, he likes the Wizards and he loved Washington. Collins is as publicly politic as the Wizards are clumsy. In contrast, no team executive was available yesterday to be interviewed. As was the case after Jordan was fired, the Wizards communicated with their fans through a news release.

Collins also did a masterful job of setting the Wizards up -- setting them up to fail, that is. This is his explanation of why it was such a smart, reasonable idea for the Wizards to can him. "If they can get Larry Brown, they can hit a home run," Collins said. "For them to get Larry, it would have to be both positions. . . . They probably thought, 'To let people know what's available, we have to fire Doug.' "

If you think that's the sum total of Collins's feelings, I'd like to sell you the 14th Street Bridge. My bet is, at 6:01 a.m., Doug yelled out his windows, "M.J., wherever you are, those guys just signed off on all 10 million smackers because they think they have a prayer at landing Larry Brown."

In their current PR nightmare, the Wizards want fans to believe, or at least hope, that they are making a credible run at Brown. See, getting rid of Jordan and Collins wasn't so bad. We actually upgraded to eccentric genius.

Well, good luck to them.

Come on, the Wizards aren't going to get Brown to replace Collins. Or, for that matter, Van Gundy or even Fratello -- neither of whom is any better coach than Collins. Those guys have choices. And when you have a choice, you don't pick a team that just fired Jordan in 18 screaming minutes after he came in, all polite and proper, to work out a friendly deal.

If Brown thinks coaching Allen Iverson was a tough day at the beach, he should ask his close friends Jordan and Collins how they enjoyed working with Kwame Brown, Pollin and Susan O'Malley. Actually, you can be sure Larry Brown knows what they think. Or he could call Ted Leonsis for references. Great work environment, right? As for the locker room, Brown already traded Jerry Stackhouse and Larry Hughes. Think he wants a reunion?

The Wizards are never smart all the way around the block. They think they've just gotten Brown to answer their calls. In fact, they just gave one of Brown's buddies a $10 million "thanks for playing the game with us" going away present. What are the Wizards to Brown? They are, in a word, "leverage." The more the Wizards offer Brown, the more he can command in Houston or Los Angeles, where a 62-year-old legend might actually want to coach. If you have a shot to mentor Steve Francis and Yao Ming, do you say, "No, I'd rather take my last big shot at the crown with Kwame."

When a franchise really messes up big time, the punishments for that ineptitude just keep on coming. The clumsiness of Collins's exit -- the message it sends around the NBA that the Wizards just don't know how to handle their business properly -- is merely another installment in the ultimate price the Wizards will pay for L'Affair Air.

In a letter to Wizards season ticket holders, obtained by the Associated Press yesterday, Pollin wrote, "My pledge to you: If you are not satisfied with the direction of our basketball franchise after this summer, I will refund your season ticket deposit in full."

None of yesterday's developments indicate any change of direction from the heading the Wizards have taken for the last 20 years. Unfortunately, that direction has usually been sideways, except for alarming periods, like the present, which hold the potential for going straight down.