ESPN has hired Doug Collins for its NBA TV broadcast team. Collins, who left after three years on the Philadelphia Sixers’ bench last season, says he won’t coach again: Q: Two trips to the playoffs and obviously a lost season last season … how do you reflect on your time coaching the Sixers? A: ‘I loved it. I absolutely loved it. To go back there, it was a circle-of-life thing for me. I went there as a player when the team was 9-73. And then to be in the NBA Finals in 1977, I got to play with some great players and some great coaches. So to go back the second time as a coach, going back to so many established friendships in the city and the fans and getting back into the playoffs, I just love the place. I’ve always loved the passion of the fans and just how much they love their teams in Philadelphia. We swung for the fences [when] we added Andrew Bynum. We had to give up a lot of young pieces; Andrew was hurt and it didn’t work out. But I give a lot of credit to Josh [Harris] and the ownership because they didn’t want to be mediocre. They wanted to have a chance at being a championship team. If you look at the pieces we had, with [Mo] Harkless and [Nikola] Vucevic and Jrue [Holiday] and Dre [Andre Iguodala] and Thad [Young] and Evan [Turner] and Spencer [Hawes], there were a lot of good young pieces. It’s a shame the Andrew Bynum thing didn’t work out. It was nobody’s fault. It just didn’t work out. But I knew where the franchise was going. I knew they realized they were probably going to have to rebuild, and I was at the stage of my career where I just didn’t feel like I was the right coach for them at that time. At age 62 to take 60 losses … I wanted to coach a good team for three, four more years and then move on. […] Q: Anytime a coach works in television, you immediately start to wonder how long it’ll be before he’s back on a bench. So what are the chances we see you taking one more coaching job somewhere? A: ‘No, I’m through coaching. I said it when I went to Philly. That was my last spot. Like I said, it was a circle of life for me. I was at a coaching clinic the other day at Illinois State talking about how difficult coaching has become. There’s so much criticism and you’re always under the microscope. It’s a tough, tough thing. There’s so much money involved because these franchises are worth hundreds of millions of dollars — and the coach, whether it’s right or wrong, has to be in the spotlight all the time. That’s just the way the situation is. […] Coaching is 24/7. You know it’s going to be on your mind all the time. But I feel like I never coached a team that underachieved and I feel very good about that. The respect that you look for is the respect of your peers, and hopefully I have that. I always felt our teams were prepared and I feel like we had young players get better wherever I was. There’s certain things in coaching you can’t control, but I’m proud of what I’ve done as a coach and I’m excited about this part of my life.'”
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