Sixth Man, The: A Memoir by Andre Iguodala

Author:Andre Iguodala [Iguodala, Andre]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: status:shelved
ISBN: 9780525533986
Amazon: B07HVZ3ZBT
Publisher: Blue Rider Press
Published: 2019-06-25T00:00:00+00:00

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Doug Collins was my final coach in Philadelphia. He had come back to the sidelines out of the broadcast booth, and I played under him for the last two years. We made it to the playoffs both times. He had a tremendous grasp of the game and really understood all the movements on a level deeper than other coaches I had known. But he had an Achilles’ heel: he wanted to win at any cost. His own background story in the league probably had an impact on how he saw the world. His career was cut short by a rash of injuries to his feet and knees, and of course, he was screwed out of a gold medal in the infamous 1972 Munich Games. The undefeated US team was playing Russia when, late in the game, a “clock malfunction” gave Russia the ball back after the game was effectively over, allowing them three separate tries to get a quick layup and win. The US team declined to take the silver medals, and they were right to do so.

Doug really could have been a Hall of Famer when it was all said and done, but injuries ultimately did him in, and he could never get back to himself. Possibly as a result of this, he had remarkably little tolerance for injuries. You got hurt under Doug and he was basically like, “Fuck that. You gotta play.” My own doctor, my trainer, everyone was telling me that I needed rest, that I was playing too many minutes. But Doug was deaf to all that. I played through injuries, he’d say, so you can do the same.

He was really good in the first year, really great at making you buy in. You’d be ready to run through a wall. He used to come to us at the beginning of practice and tell us that Michael Jordan had watched us play the night before. “Dre,” he would say, “MJ said way to attack last night. He was impressed.” That would fire us up. Wow, Michael Jordan is watching our games! We have to leave it all out there tonight! That really worked until I realized that I had a teammate who knew MJ personally. “Man, MJ ain’t watching our games!” he told me. I couldn’t believe it. Coach Collins really had me running out there thinking Michael Jordan was tuning in. But that was the Doug Collins genius. He could motivate you like no one else.

But around the second or third year, you begin to pick up on it. You realize that the way he’s driving you isn’t right. It isn’t normal, and teams begin to shift away from him. And if you look at his coaching record, that’s what happens. Chicago, Detroit, Washington, Philly—always the same thing. In the third year, things go sideways.

But much of my opinion of Doug Collins is colored by what happened on the last day I spent as a Philadelphia 76er.

It was during the Olympics. One of the most meaningful and special experiences of my life.

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