Doug Collins Quit as Sixers Head Coach

As expected, after undergoing his worst coaching season (34-48), Doug Collins is officially out as head coach of the Philadelphia Sixers. He will stay on as an advisor to team owner Josh Harris. Per Philly.com: “His final record in Philadelphia is 110-120 over three seasons, and his overall record is 442-407 over 12 seasons. ‘I don’t have to drop my head – I didn’t fail,’ Collins said. ‘A lot of it was out of our control and sometimes you have to realize that. We’ve got a lot of good young pieces [and] we probably played our best basketball the last 6 weeks of the season, which was important to me.’ Collins also strongly denied reports that 76ers upper management tried to push him out. ‘The thing that stunned me the most was at the end when they made it look like they didn’t want me,’ Collins said. He admitted that the 76ers ‘swung for the fences and it didn’t work’ when the team traded for Andrew Bynum. The seven-foot center never played a minute for the 76ers this season. The team finished in ninth place in the Eastern Conference with a 34-48 record, four games out of the playoffs. Collins said this season’s disappointments weren’t the reason why he resigned. ‘I was not going to base [stepping down] upon winning and losing,’ he said. Harris also talked about the direction of the team after failing to make the playoffs. […] ‘Doug will not coach next season and I’ll leave it to Doug to say why … He is going to stay on with the 76ers as my advisor. He loves the 76ers, he loves the city. He’s not planning on coaching anywhere else … This is his decision, he’s not being pushed out – I don’t know where that came from … I wish him well and I look forward to working with him in this capacity … I tried to convince Doug to stay… We wanted Doug to come back – why wouldn’t you want a great coach to come back? At the same time I recognize his desire as a man.'”