Doug Collins Will Not Coach the Bulls

We can stop wondering why the Bulls haven't worked out a deal with Doug Collins because apparently there won't be a deal with Doug Collins. After talking with Jerry Reinsdorf on the phone this afternoon, Collins removed his name from contention. He gave his reasons to the Chicago Tribune:

"This is absolutely mutual. When this first came about, there was a tremendous amount of excitement about this possibility. And I'm losing that. The feeling now is more, 'Should I do this?' Once I got to that point, it meant no. I always make decisions yes is yes, no is no and maybe is no.

"I just knew over the last few days that Jerry was really struggling over whether or not to do this, and I didn't want Jerry to have those struggles," Collins told the Tribune. "I love him. And I didn't want him feeling that kind of angst.

"Jerry knows me well enough to know the only way I could do this is if I was totally engaged. And I just couldn't do that now."

Unsubstantiated conspiracy theory: Reinsdorf had already cooled on Collins, but because of his previous relationship with Collins, he allowed Collins to publicly bow out to save himself from the embarrassment of being passed over.

An alternate, slightly less conniving theory: Collins actually wanted to coach the Bulls but got cold feet once he realized he didn't have complete and enthusiastic support from the front office, evident by their decision to continue interviewing candidates.

Either way, the end result is the same: the Bulls are still headless after seven weeks. From my seat, it seems Reinsdorf is doing more damage than good. John Paxson gave the thumbs up on Mike D'Antoni and was apparently good with Collins, but Reinsdorf dragged his feet on both and is now left without anything to show for it. Maybe they dodged a bullet by "losing" Collins (there was hardly universal support among Bulls fans), but it still shouldn't take nearly two months and 10,000 interviews to find a coach.