Doug Collins

The schedule said that Game No. 81 for the 76ers was to be played against the Detroit Pistons, so that's what the teams had to do. A combined 38 games under .500 to begin the contest, both teams played with the tenacity of a Sunday morning walk with the dog. But just as the game had to be played, someone had to win, and the Pistons did that, 109-101. The loss dropped the Sixers to 33-48. Still, Sixers coach Doug Collins, who was coaching his next to last game with the team, has been proud of the effort his club has given of late.

According to several sources with knowledge of the situation, 76ers coach Doug Collins and the team's ownership are working on a buyout agreement and Collins will not return as the coach next season. "He's not coming back," a team source said. "This is something that both sides have been thinking about for some time. It looks like they are going to part ways. I'm certain Doug will be looking for a buyout. From what I understand, both sides want to make it an amicable parting of the ways.

The 76ers won their final home game of the season on a day when the franchise celebrated the 30-year anniversary of its 1982-83 NBA championship team. Yawn. That's what a wearying disappointment of a season will do to an organization. The present-day reality mutes even the greatest moments in franchise history. Someday the Sixers may once again establish themselves as NBA contenders. But it's hard to say if Sunday's 91-77 win over equally struggling Cleveland at the Wells Fargo Center was something to build on. Yahoo Sports reported late Sunday that Doug Collins plans to resign as Sixers coach at the end of the season.

It should be beneath Doug Collins for it to play out this way. He is a good man and an excellent basketball coach. But if the funhouse-mirror reporting of the last week is all accurate, he has badly mishandled the final days of his 76ers tenure. According to Yahoo Sports - and silly name aside, that translates to the very, very respected and accurate Adrian Wojnarowski - Collins told Sixers ownership Sunday he plans to resign at the end of the season. He did this, if he did this, on the day that: Collins told reporters anything other than the titanic clash against the Cavaliers was "moot," refusing to answer questions about his future as if they were somehow a product of the media's collective fever dream.

THIS IS HOW the past week appears to have played out between 76ers coach Doug Collins and management, according to multiple league sources. The sources say that Collins, now in his third season as head coach and with 1 more year remaining on his contract, told management he would prefer not to return as coach next season. Owner Josh Harris informed Collins that he very much wants Collins back at the helm next season, but was told that Collins was not prepared to return in that capacity.

IF SUNDAY'S game against the Cleveland Cavaliers was indeed the last for Sixers head coach Doug Collins at the Wells Fargo Center, at least the former Sixers star will leave South Philadelphia with a win. Playing with the backdrop of speculation that Collins will either quit or be fired at the end of the season, the Sixers did one of the things their coach has been begging them to do all through the season: play a complete game. Jumping to a 16-point lead after 6 1/2 minutes, the Sixers rolled a 91-77 victory.

WASHINGTON - Here in the nation's capital, a place where too much talking can get you into a boatload of trouble, 76ers coach Doug Collins decided to plead the Fifth. After a story published Thursday cited NBA sources as saying that Sixers management wouldn't mind if Collins didn't fulfill the final year of his contract, the coach wanted the conversation to end before it started in the hallways of the Verizon Center as his team prepared to face the Washington Wizards. "Absolutely," Collins responded when asked whether he thought management had his back.

WASHINGTON - While 76ers coach Doug Collins has not addressed a column in Thursday's Inquirer that indicated ownership wants him to resign, there are others in front offices around the league that are willing to talk about it. Such was the case Friday when an Atlantic Division general manager, speaking anonymously, addressed the situation. "Doug has gotten them to the playoffs in the last two seasons, so he's got that going for him," the general manager said. "Everyone knows he's an excellent coach.

WASHINGTON - As Doug Collins walked off the court at the Verizon Center at halftime on Friday, two 76ers, Thaddeus Young and Damien Wilkins, had something to say to him. "They said, 'Coach, you know we are going to keep fighting and competing,' " Collins said. "That was fun to hear. " Facing a Washington team that, like the 76ers, is playing out the remaining string of games on its schedule, the Sixers fell behind by 13 points in the second quarter and then outscored the Wizards by 69-45 the rest of the way, ending a three-game losing streak with a 97-86 win. The Sixers improved to 32-47.

A year ago, there was plenty of excitement surrounding the 76ers. "We played Indiana on our team photo [day], lost, and played five straight road games to get into the playoffs and won four of them," said coach Doug Collins, whose team took this season's team photo Wednesday before a 124-101 setback to the Atlanta Hawks. "It's just interesting where you are from this year to last year. " These days, the Sixers (31-47) bear little resemblance to the team that was eliminated by the Boston Celtics last year in the seventh game of the Eastern Conference semifinals.