Road to Duke
Christopher Ryan Collins was born April 19, 1974, in Northbrook, Illinois, on the north shore of Chicago. His father, Doug Collins, was a four-time NBA All-Star who played eight seasons with the 76ers and represented the United States in the controversial 1972 Olympic gold-medal basketball game. His mother, Kathy Stieger Collins, was from Cedar Rapids. His sister Kelly played basketball at Lehigh and became a teacher.
Chris’s earliest memories were basketball. When Doug coached the Bulls starting in 1986, twelve-year-old Chris became a ball boy. His first day: November 4, 1986 — Doug’s first home game, against San Antonio at Chicago Stadium. Seventh-grade Chris stood in the locker room corner when Michael Jordan arrived ninety minutes before the game.
Four years later, Chris was sixteen, walking through the bowels of Chicago Stadium after a Bulls game. Jordan walked past. "Nice earring," Chris said to him. Only someone who had grown up around Jordan would dare.
At the Spectrum in Philadelphia, where Doug had played, the players’ kids gathered in the family room. Chris and Kobe Bryant — whose father Joe had been Doug’s teammate — used to take over the mini basketball hoop, along with Mike Bibby and Mike Dunleavy Jr. Children of NBA players, playing while their fathers played.
Doug never let Chris win in the driveway. Not once. Chris pleaded. He cried after losses. Doug wouldn’t relent: "Your first instinct as a parent is to protect your son. But life’s not that way. You get bumped. You fall down. The measure of a man is how you handle hurdles." Chris finally beat his father at fourteen.
At Glenbrook North High School: 32.1 PPG, 47% from three, Class AA supersectionals. Illinois Mr. Basketball. McDonald’s All-American. Three-Point Contest champion. Every headline: Doug Collins’ Son. Chris made a promise: "I’m going to work as hard as possible to have people know me as Chris Collins." He committed to Duke.
At Duke
Chris Collins played four years at Duke, 1992–96, spanning the end of the First Dynasty and the beginning of the Transition era. He arrived on a team with Grant Hill, Cherokee Parks, and Antonio Lang. All-ACC Freshman Team in 1992–93. A four-year contributor and sharp-shooting guard who could space the floor and run the offense.
Senior year, 1995–96: team captain, Second Team All-ACC, and the Swett-Baylin Memorial Trophy as Duke’s Most Valuable Player. Among ACC leaders in scoring, assists, field-goal percentage, and free-throw percentage. He played through a broken foot late in the season — an injury that would shadow his professional aspirations. He graduated with a sociology degree and a basketball education that combined his father’s NBA pedigree with Coach K’s program.
Chris didn’t want Doug coaching him directly. He was emotional about it. He just wanted Doug to be Dad. In retrospect, he called it dumb — his father had so much to give. But the tension between being your own man and being your father’s son was the defining struggle of Chris Collins’s life, and it played out at Duke more than anywhere else. He was not Grant Hill. He was the coach’s kid who could shoot, who could lead, who could captain a team, and who graduated as Duke’s MVP — a distinction that meant something different, and deeper, than being the best athlete on the roster.
After Duke
The broken foot ended Chris’s NBA hopes. He went to Finland and led the league in scoring, lonely and still dreaming. When he came home, Doug — then coaching Detroit — called in a favor with Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders: let Chris try out. He was the 20th man on what would become a 14-man roster. During an exhibition game against Doug’s Pistons at the Palace of Auburn Hills, Chris hit a three-pointer. Doug’s face was on the tickets that night. The joy on Chris’s face was something Doug never forgot. But when the roster was cut, Chris was gone. DeJuan Wheat dashed his NBA dreams for good.
He pivoted to coaching. Assistant with the Detroit Shock in the WNBA under Nancy Lieberman. Two seasons at Seton Hall, where he met his wife Kim. In 2000, Coach K brought him home to Duke as an assistant. Thirteen seasons on Krzyzewski’s staff, rising to associate head coach. Part of the 2010 national championship team. He was instrumental in recruiting Jon Scheyer — a fellow Glenbrook North graduate and Illinois Mr. Basketball winner — to Duke. Scheyer would eventually succeed Coach K. The circle from Northbrook to Durham to Northbrook was complete.
Where Is He Now
In March 2013, Chris Collins was hired as head coach at Northwestern University — the only Power Conference school in America that had never made the NCAA Tournament. Not once. Not in 78 years.
In 2016–17, it happened. Northwestern’s first winning Big Ten record in 49 years. First NCAA Tournament bid in school history. On Selection Sunday, they waited through three brackets before hearing their name. Collins jumped with both arms raised. ESPN brought Doug onto the broadcast from a remote location, and father and son shared the moment on split screen. They beat Vanderbilt for the program’s first tournament win.
Lean years followed — losing records, calls for his firing, an arena renovation. But Collins rebuilt again. Second tournament appearance in 2022–23, upsetting #1 Purdue. Third appearance in 2023–24. His son Ryan, a Northwestern manager, hugged him and cried after the Purdue upset — the same way Chris had cried in the driveway decades earlier.
In April 2024, Doug Collins was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Chris said he relishes being called Doug’s son. The kid who promised to be known as Chris Collins had grown up enough to understand that being your father’s son is not a limitation. It is a foundation.
Chris Collins was born in Northbrook and raised in NBA locker rooms. He was a ball boy at twelve and said "Nice earring" to Jordan at sixteen. He played mini-hoop with Kobe because their fathers were teammates. His dad never let him win in the driveway. He was Illinois Mr. Basketball. He went to Duke and was named MVP. He broke his foot, went to Finland, hit a three against his father’s Pistons, and the joy on his face was something Doug never forgot. He coached at Duke for thirteen years and recruited Jon Scheyer from his own high school. He took the only Power Conference school that had never made the Tournament and took them three times. His son cried in his arms after a win over the #1 team in America. His father was inducted into the Hall of Fame. He is still coaching at Northwestern. He is Doug Collins’ son. He is Chris Collins. He has always been both.