By Ken Denlinger
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 20, 2001; Page D01

In Doug Collins, the Washington Wizards will be getting a coach praised for his passion, knowledge and ability to teach. He's also not lacking in confidence.

"He would say, 'If you keep me within striking range, I'll win the game,' " Toronto Raptors forward Jerome Williams said.

Collins was named the team's seventh coach since 1997 at an MCI Center news conference yesterday, signing a contract believed to be for four years and worth between $8 million and $10 million. He replaces Leonard Hamilton, who resigned on Wednesday after the Wizards completed the worst season in team history at 19-63.

Williams was a rookie during Collins's second season as coach of the Detroit Pistons, 1996-97, when the team won 54 games and quickly began to understand what appeared on the surface to be arrogance.

"I remember countless situations, near the end of close games, when he had two or three plays ready that got us scores, just from watching and reading how teams were playing situations," recalled Williams, who played at Georgetown University and Magruder High. "He had our confidence. He knew that we knew that he knew what he was talking about."

There was a pattern to Collins during his two NBA head-coaching jobs, with the Chicago Bulls and Pistons. His teams won quickly, each reaching 50 victories in his second season. However, Collins never got into his fourth season with either team. He was fired after his third season with the Bulls, 1988-89, after the team went 47-35 with a rapidly blossoming Michael Jordan. He was fired close to midseason his third year with the Pistons, 1998, after officials thought his passion caused too much friction.

Williams was still with the Pistons at the time, and he admitted: "His intensity level wears on everybody. . . . There was a burnout factor."

Collins had a moment during his introductory news conference when he alluded to rubbing people the wrong way, saying: "Sometimes, I care too much."

"I put my heart and soul into things," he said later, "and if I don't like what I'm getting in return I hurt."

It's that fire that was key in the decision by Jordan, the Wizards president of basketball operations, to hire Collins.

"The qualities I've seen in Doug Collins is that he has appetite and enthusiasm for the game," Jordan said yesterday. "His knowledge about the game will be very helpful for this young team."

One of the Pistons with whom Collins had a frosty relationship was star swingman Grant Hill. Neither Hill nor other pivotal Pistons supported Collins before he was fired. Hill was not available to comment, but Collins talked about a recent conversation that suggests some change in Hill's attitude.

Collins said he phoned Hill to offer sympathy for an injury-plagued first year with the Orlando Magic and added: "It was interesting just to hear him talk about understanding about what I was trying to do, and maybe not understanding it at the time at all."

Raptors backup center Eric Montross played under Collins for about two months with the Pistons before Collins was fired and was impressed with him as a teacher, though quite a stern one.

"At this level," Montross said after the Raptors finished a practice at MCI Center in preparation for their playoff series with the New York Knicks, "players sometimes have a tendency to get rubbed a bit the wrong way when coaches really do coach. A good teaching coach, especially here in Washington, is just what you need."

Added Raptors director of basketball operations Bob Zuffelato, who observed Collins with the Bulls and Pistons: "This franchise needs a shake-up, a real experienced guy. In all fairness to Leonard [Hamilton], there's such a premium on knowing the league, knowing the tendencies of the coaches and players."

At 49, the son of a small-town sheriff in Illinois, Collins always has been fiery and relished overcoming long odds as a player and coach.

"I've never inherited a rose garden," said Collins, whose career coaching record is 258-197 (15-23 in the playoffs).

John Bach has known Collins as long and as well as anyone in basketball. He was an assistant coach when Collins, until then a mostly unknown guard from obscure Illinois State, starred on the 1972 U.S. Olympic team that suffered a controversial loss to the former Soviet Union for the gold medal. He was also on Collins's staff with the Bulls and Pistons.

"I always call him Paul Douglas Collins," Bach said, "because he was named after the senator from Illinois [Paul Douglas who served from 1949 to 1967]. He's high drive, high energy, high expectations, upbeat. He suffers like all coaches when the team's not playing well. But he has a hugely optimistic view of basketball."

Bach recalled that Collins would have been the toast of U.S. amateur basketball for sinking two free throws in the final seconds "under the most duress you can imagine" that appeared to give the Americans a victory over the Soviets in the Munich Games. But the Soviets got two chances thereafter, the second of which was highly disputed, and won.

"He was quietly forgotten by basketball," Bach said.

That's not entirely true, because Collins was chosen by the Philadelphia 76ers with the top pick in the 1973 draft and helped lead them from a 9-73 record to the Eastern Conference title four years later, before losing to Portland in the NBA finals.

As a coach, Collins takes pride in developing young players. Among them are his present boss, Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant, Hill and Williams. When told that Williams said he saw him lose hair in highly stressful situations, Collins laughed.

"Not true," he said. "If I did, it was because he was trying to be a ball-handler [and had too many turnovers]. His job was to rebound and run the court."

That allowed Collins to address his mission with the Wizards as though several reporters were players.

"I will never ask you to do something that you can't do," Collins said, "to all of a sudden reinvent who you are. Play to your strengths. It's my job to find out what your strengths are."

Wizards Notes: It is unknown what will become of Hamilton's coaching staff -- Bach, Larry Drew and Stan Jones. The three are scheduled to meet with Jordan this morning. Collins said that Jordan gave him the authority to bring in his own coaches. . . . Courtney Alexander was named NBA rookie of the month after averaging 22.4 points and shooting 47.9 percent (78-163) from the field in nine games in April.