Collins Rode a Roller Coaster to Top

Not that Chick Hearn’s consecutive-game streak is in jeopardy, but NBC’s Bob Costas and Doug Collins have a mini-streak going.

They’ll be working their third Laker game in three weeks when Pat Riley and the Miami Heat visit Staples Center for a 3 p.m. game Sunday.

It will be the sixth Laker game NBC’s No. 1 team has worked this season, and Collins will have worked 11 by the end of the regular season.

He’ll be paired with Marv Albert when the Lakers play the Knicks on March 19 at Madison Square Garden, then it will be Collins and Costas the rest of the way.

“I feel like I’m Stu Lantz,” Collins said.

NBC tabbed the Lakers its marquee team before the season, and it has worked out. The network’s marquee announcing team is also having a good season.

Collins is to pro basketball what Johnny Miller is to golf, John McEnroe to tennis, Billy Packer to college basketball and John Madden to pro football. He’s the best commentator in the sport.

The nice thing about it is Collins appreciates his lot.

“I love my life,” he said. “I’m still involved in the game I love and still have free time for my family.”

Collins has always put being a father first.

“Your kids are the most important thing in your life,” he said. “They are your legacy.”

The six years he worked for Turner Broadcasting, he had an arrangement in which he was free to attend his son’s and daughter’s basketball games when the family lived in Northbrook, Ill.

Chris, 25, a star at Duke, is now an assistant coach at Seton Hall, and Kelly, who turned 22 Wednesday, is a senior guard for Lehigh in Bethlehem, Pa.

It’s not uncommon for Collins and his wife to fly from their home in Scottsdale, Ariz., to Pennsylvania to see Kelly’s games. The Collinses moved to Scottsdale--a perfect place for Collins’ other passion, golf--after Doug was fired as coach of the Detroit Pistons 45 games into the 1997-98 season.

Collins said he fell in love with the area when he was an assistant coach under Bob Weinhauer at Arizona State in the mid-1980s. Henry Bibby and Gar Heard were also on that staff.

Speaking of assistant coaches, Phil Jackson was on Collins’ staff for two of the three seasons Collins was head coach of the Chicago Bulls. Jackson succeeded Collins, who was fired after the 1988-89 season. There were media reports at the time of a rift between them.

“That was a tough time for me,” Collins said. “I took the team from a 30-win season to a 40-win season, then a 50-win season and we went to the Eastern Conference finals twice. Then I was fired.

“It was the first time anybody had told me, ‘We don’t need you.’ It was a very, very painful time for me. But I’m not the type of person to stay angry and bitter. If you do that, you never have a chance to be happy. I used the experience to learn and grow.”

Asked about his relationship with Jackson now, Collins said, “I wouldn’t say we are friends, but Phil is always cooperative, willing to take the time to sit down and talk.”

Collins has only good things to say about what Jackson has accomplished with the Lakers. But then who could say anything bad these days?

One thing to look for in Sunday’s telecast, according to Collins, is a breakdown of Shaquille O’Neal’s new free-throw form. NBC will use a split screen to show the old form and the new.

FOX PUTS ON BIG ‘CAP

The $1-million Santa Anita Handicap Saturday will be nationally televised by the big Fox network (Channel 11). The Big ‘Cap is the second of the “Super Series” races in the National Thoroughbred Racing Assn.’s “Champions on Fox” series. Kenny Albert will host the 2 p.m. telecast--post time is 2:40--with Ron Ellis and Jay Privman serving as analysts and Caton Bredar as reporter.

Producer Pete Macheska said that with the California primary coming up Tuesday, the telecast will have a political flavor. For instance, analysts will endorse the horses they like rather than pick them.

BOXING BEAT

Boxing is suddenly on a hot streak, and tonight’s $34.95 pay-per-view fight between Felix Trinidad and David Reid at Caesars Palace should keep it going. Experts rate the fight a toss-up. A solid three-fight undercard, which begins at 6 p.m. with Christy Martin-Belinda Laracuente, adds to the appeal.

TVKO offers an attractive $24.95 card Saturday night at 6 from Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay. Paulie Ayala faces Johnny Bredahl in the main event and Yory Boy Campas and Oba Carr meet in an undercard 10-rounder. Channel 9’s Alan Massengale calls the fight with Al Bernstein and Genaro Hernandez.

SHORT WAVES

The Lakers’ game at Portland on Tuesday night got an impressive 12.7 rating. The TNT telecast was blacked out on most cable systems here because TNT was over its limit for bringing Laker telecasts into L.A. . . . CBS has assigned its No. 1 team of Jim Nantz and Packer to UCLA-Stanford on Saturday at 1 p.m. . . . The Pacific 10 game of the year, Stanford at Arizona on Thursday night, will be on Fox Sports Net 2. . . . ESPN and ESPN2 will televise 58 games over eight days beginning Saturday. . . . KXTA (1150) will broadcast from Staples Center Monday, beginning at noon, as part of a promotion for DirecTV’s supplemental NCAA tournament package. DirecTV spokesman James Worthy will be on hand from 3-5 p.m.

Attention prep basketball fans: Fox Sports Net 2 has the Southern Division 1-AA final featuring Long Beach Poly Saturday at 7 p.m. . . . Channel 13, which televises Sunday’s Los Angeles Marathon, has made a deal to carry St. Louis Ram exhibition games next season. . . . Attention Orange County college baseball fans: Orange County News (OCN), which is televising 15 Cal State Fullerton games this season, has USC-Fullerton Sunday at 5:30 p.m. The announcers are Brent Weber and Paul Westphal--no, not the Seattle SuperSonic coach.

IN CLOSING

ESPN viewers watching the morning round from the Andersen Consulting Match Play at La Costa on Saturday were irritated when coverage was cut short by college basketball, and ABC viewers watching Sunday got a jolt when they found out that golf is not the only four-letter word Tiger Woods knows.

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What Los Angeles Is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for Feb. 26-27:

SATURDAY

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Over-the-air Channel Rating Share Golf: Andersen Consulting Match Play 7 3.8 10 College basketball: Michigan State at Indiana 2 2.0 7 College basketball: St. John’s at Duke 2 1.7 6 Boxing: U.S. Olympic trials box-off 4 1.1 4 Speedskating: World All-Around Championships 7 1.2 4 College basketball: Arkansas at Kentucky 2 0.9 3

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*

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Cable Network Rating Share Boxing: Oscar De La Hoya vs. Derrell Coley HBO 2.5 5 Golf: Match Play (morning round) ESPN 1.3 4 College basketball: Oregon State at UCLA FSN 1.2 3 Hockey: Kings at San Jose FSN 1.2 2 College basketball: Oregon at USC FSN2 0.5 1 Pro basketball: Atlanta at Clippers FSN2 0.5 1 College basketball: Missouri at Oklahoma ESPN 0.4 1

*--*

*

SUNDAY

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Over-the-air Channel Rating Share Pro basketball: Houston at Lakers 4 10.9 20 Pro basketball: Utah at Portland 4 6.7 14 Golf: Match Play final 7 6.2 14 Pro basketball: Phoenix at Toronto 4 4.9 12 Soccer: Gold Cup final, Canada-Colombia 34 3.1 7 College basketball: Georgetown at Syracuse 2 1.8 4 College basketball: Auburn at Florida 2 1.6 4 College basketball: Illinois at Ohio State 2 1.4 3 Hockey: Edmonton at Mighty Ducks 9 0.9 1

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Cable Network Rating Share Bowling: Bayer/Brunswick Touring Players ESPN 1.0 3 Auto racing: NASCAR DuraLube/Kmart 400 TNN 0.9 2 Golf: Senior LiquidGolf.com Invitational ESPN 0.7 1 Boxing: John John Molina vs. Juan Carlos FSN 0.3 0 Hockey: Colorado at Dallas ESPN 0.2 0

*--*

WEEKDAY RATINGS: TUESDAY--Lakers at Portland, Ch. 9, 12.7/18.

Note: Each rating point represents 51,350 L.A. households. Cable ratings reflect the entire market, even though cable is in only 63% of L.A. households.