What the Chicago Bulls' new hire means for human development

I'm not trying to be a very poor man's FreeDarko today, but the basketball world's chattering classes are surprisingly a-twitter over rumors coming out of Chicago. (I say it's surprising because we are possibly two games away from one of the greatest NBA Finals' storylines in years, and sports talking heads all over are speculating about a possible head coaching hire by a 33-49 team.) Supposedly, the Bulls are set to re-hire Doug Collins, NBA tv analyst, Illinois State alum and former NBA all-star, Wizards coach, Pistons coach, and, most importantly, Michael Jordan's coach for the Bulls before Phil Jackson took over and drove the Air Jordan car to 6 NBA titles.

Common wisdom in Chicago has had it that Collins is a great expert on the game, but too much of a taskmaster to lead great basketball players in the present NBA. (Disregarding all the questionable implications implicit in this, and the fact that that immediately makes people think of newly deposed Scott Skiles, I can't shake a piece I read a few years ago about Collins unable to coach Jordan's Wizards team under 23's shadow.)

What do I think this has to do with human development? It's bringing to the forefront one of the more poorly understood questions in our lives: how much can adults change? One of the more immediate points being made is the following: Doug Collins is a head coach who couldn't win with Michael Jordan on his team. What can he do with Hinrich, Deng, Noah, etc?

There are a couple of ideas here I'd like to tease out. The most simple point here is that Jordan, greatest of all time or not, still came into the league without the maturity or teammates to win a championship. The Jordan that Doug Collins coached was not the same Jordan coached by Phil Jackson, plain and simple.

There are two other moving targets here: Doug Collins' coaching ability, and the NBA environment. While no immediate NBA examples come to mind, I'd like to point out a couple of examples from baseball of a coach leaving his role to be an analyist: Bob Brenly and Joe Torre were both able to take what they observed as analysts and apply it to their coaching style. (This is assuming you think a baseball manager or NBA coach have all that much to do with their team's success; I think both are pretty open questions, but think that, particularly in baseball, the players and their talent and cohesion matter much more. But I won't go there.)

A phrase I've heard a couple of times today is "a leopard doesn't change its spots." I think as a society we've retired a few cliches about how people can't change themselves and their place in the world: "there are no second acts in American lives" has been killed over and over again, for example. Here's hoping that Doug Collins can popularize a belief that I, and most of my colleagues, hold: that there is plenty of room to change oneself, and one's ability to thrive within their environment, even late into adulthood.