Stephen A. Smith: Collins is much too good a coach for these 76ers

The word is that Doug Collins is the leading candidate to become the next coach of the 76ers. Hey, Philadelphia, consider yourself lucky, but only for a moment.

Because when you're a brilliant basketball mind like Collins, someone capable of coaching rings around most of the head honchos in the NBA, you shut off your phone and screen your mail for fear of contamination. You stay out the public eye and avoid all contact - doing whatever you must to avoid being offered the Sixers job. Or worse, being compelled to take it.

Even if it means being AWOL for your TNT telecasts for the rest of the Western Conference finals. Seriously.

Collins, 58, must not be offered the Sixers job. If so, he must not take it. Not if he cares about himself, his family, his sanity.

It won't be long before he's institutionalized after dealing with this bunch.

This is what happens when you're learning how to play basketball instead of knowing how to do so, like professionals do. Great coaches are never enough. Their temperament is always a consideration. And the combination of those two criteria makes Collins a bad fit for this particular Sixers situation.

For all of Collins' greatness, he is well-known for wearing his emotions on his sleeve whenever he's coaching. He sweats about as much as Stan Van Gundy. He's capable of crying from time to time. His patience, while admirable, was questionable at times during stops at Chicago, Detroit and Washington - and that was when he dealt with Michael Jordan, Joe Dumars or Grant Hill, not the likes of Andre Iguodala and Elton Brand.

"Doug is one hell of a coach," said one Eastern Conference executive who has known Collins for years. "He's just outstanding in every way. He's a great basketball mind. He can talk and teach the game all day long. But he cares so much. The game means so much to him. What he'll do if his players don't feel that way . . . I just don't know."

One can only imagine.

What will Collins do if Iguodala tries to bring in his own shooting coach this season? If Brand doesn't want to work out? If Samuel Dalembert reiterates how he doesn't want to be in Philadelphia? If Lou Williams insists on being a point guard? Or if someone other than Jason Kapono tries to act like he can shoot?

These are legitimate questions. And when you have the luxury of a $2 million-a-year job waiting for you as a television analyst, the path out the door is made considerably easier when there's no chance of a championship on the horizon.

That's why the job is better suited for someone younger. Preferably starving.

The Sixers at least appear as if they know this much, which explains why Collins isn't the only candidate left.

"Ed Stefanski [the general manager] has met with us and narrowed his candidates. Now he'll be pursuing second interviews," said Peter Luukko, chief operating officer of Comcast-Spectacor, the team's parent company. "No one knows what's going to happen from here. Sure, we like certain candidates. But you never know what's going to happen. Agents haven't been talked to. Financials haven't been discussed with these guys, etc. All I can tell you is that second interviews are going to take place and Ed is handling that."

Good enough.

As of last night, the other two candidates scheduled for second interviews were former Dallas Mavericks coach Avery Johnson and former Toronto Raptors coach Sam Mitchell. Luukko would not confirm that information, nor rumors that the choice has been narrowed to those three, with Collins leading the way.

By most accounts, it appears that Stefanski will make a recommendation on a coach but will not have the final say. That will be left up to Luukko and chairman Ed Snider. Snider's decision, in all likelihood, will be drastically swayed by consultant Gene Shue, the former Sixers coach and Snider's old classmate at the University of Maryland.

But Collins is the man right now. No one would argue with this choice under normal circumstances. But the Sixers are strolling around as if they were 55-27 last season when they actually were 27-55. That's not normal.

"Hopefully, we'll get a high pick in the draft and be in position to continue getting better, with a great player and a new coach so we can move forward," Luukko said. "When you come off a terrible season, you want to get the next one started right away."

That depends on who is hired - and how long he'll last.

Year Team W L Pct.

1986-87 CHI 40 42 .488

1987-88 CHI 50 32 .610

1988-89 CHI 47 35 .573

1995-96 DET 46 36 .561

1996-97 DET 54 28 .659

1997-98 DET 21 24 .467

2001-02 WAS 37 45 .451

2002-03 WAS 37 45 .451

Totals 332 287 .536

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