“I wish I knew how good Michael Jordan was going to be”: Doug Collins led the Bulls legend to an MVP-DPOY double, but he still regrets not tapping MJ better and sooner

Doug Collins is often looked at as the coach who unlocked Michael Jordan and unleashed the most dominant basketball player ever. But Collins believes he could’ve done even better with a little more foresight.

Before MJ had his infamous beef with Sports Illustrated during his baseball days, his first claim to national fame as a professional was making his third SI cover on their December 1984 edition.

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Michael Jordan was also elected to the All-NBA Second team as a rookie in addition to being an All-Star starter. The following year, he would go on to paste the Larry Bird-led Boston Celtics to the tune of 63 points at Boston Garden.

But even so, coverage of the NBA tends to be very, very results-oriented rather than process-based. And the reality is, print media was more interested in selling tabloids than in providing information. For that reason, Jordan continued to go under the radar.

It was in 1986-87 – his first season playing under new head coach Doug Collins – that MJ won his first scoring title. He followed that up with an MVP-DPOY double in the 1987-88 season.

When Doug Collins blamed himself for not recognizing how gifted Michael Jordan truly was, earlier

However, Doug Collins believes that he could’ve unlocked Michael Jordan even further, much sooner. There was, after all, a spell in Collins’ final season coaching the Bulls when he put MJ at point. Jordan responded with 10 triple-doubles in 11 games.

It is clear that if MJ had been forced to become a playmaker earlier in his career, he could’ve added even more to his already significantly clear GOAT resume. That is, perhaps, the regret that Doug Collins has, as he described in a recent radio interview:

“I wish I would have known when I taken the job how good Michael really was going to be. I mean, Michael had just come off the playoffs where he had had a broken foot.”

“During the year he had missed, I think all but 18 games. He then came back in the playoffs. And I mean the show he put on in Boston garden against the Celtics.”

“I think Larry Bird had a comment one time he said the guy who I just played against god or somebody who was disguising himself as Michael Jordan.”

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