Portrait | Chris Mullin, from hell to heaven

“If God had created a basketball player, he would have made him like Chris Mullin. Mullin, God’s chosen? Magic Johnson himself says so in this video. From a young age, Chris was a New York basketball legend. In high school, Catholic Xaverian High School in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn (an all-boys school), he was known as “the gym rat. Later, at St. John’s University in Queens, he was given the keys to the gym. At night, he could be found making a series of shots. Well past midnight. Always alone. Chris Mullin forges his destiny.

Olympic champion in 1984 in Los Angeles with Michael Jordan, he is elected three times All American and especially named college player of the year in 1985, when his college participates in the Final Four. It is certain that his future will be written in gold letters. Chris will soon sit among the greats. But Satan is also involved… If the Devil had bewitched a basketball player, he too would have chosen Christopher Paul Mullin. Like all true alcoholics, the New York native refuses to admit that he is one. One day in 1987, Don Nelson, future coach and vice president of the Warriors, takes him aside. “Tell me, Chris, they say you’re married to the bottle. Is that true?”

Mullin is too ashamed to admit the truth.“: Forget it, they’re stories.”

Nelson is not convinced… ” Fine. So let’s make a bet: you won’t touch a drink for six months. If you’re not an alcoholic, it’s doable, right?”

Mullin agrees. A handshake seals the deal. Chris won’t last even a month. Two years after his arrival at the Golden State Warriors in 1985 (7th choice of draft), he is prisoner of his addiction. The life in California weighs him down. Mullin knew only New York and Brooklyn. On the West Coast, he is lost, disoriented. Desperately alone. Chris has no friends. He doesn’t go out much and falls into a deep depression. When the championship resumed in October, he was caught up in a downward spiral. He misses training sessions, forgets appointments, lies constantly. His life was slipping away. His playing career seemed to be in jeopardy before it even began. Chris Mullin? Mr. Cursed.

“I was in a tough spot… When people would ask me, “What the hell are you doing, Chris? I felt like the others were always nagging me. “So Chris, late again? I would spin my way out of it. I had a whole catalog of excuses. My watch had stopped, my car had broken down. All this was not like me. I was disgusted with myself. It was time to call for help.

31 days in rehab

It took a mid-season suspension and encouragement from Don Nelson for Mullin to finally accept the obvious. He called his mother in New York and asked her to join him immediately in San Francisco. A few days later, on December 13, 1987, Mullin entered Centinela Hospital in Inglewood, California, for a 31-day rehab program. He spends six hours in therapy daily. There, he meets alcoholics who have recovered. ” Don Nelson may have saved my life. Without him, I never would have taken the plunge and everything that followed would never have happened. Without realizing it, I was slowly killing myself. I took back control of my life. I put it back together.I feel much better. “

Mullin started drinking at age 14. Mostly beer. Then he varied the pleasures. In college, he became a heavy drinker. Outside of basketball, his life rings hollow. Chris is not an especially diligent student. At age 24, he has finally conquered his demons. When he got out of the hospital, he made 95 consecutive free throws. It was the beginning of a new era. He will finish the season with an average of 20.2 points, 3.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists having missed 22 games. George Karl was fired after 64 games. Don Nelson takes over with a double cap as coach-GM. He got Mullin out of alcohol. He got him to work on his fitness. And he made him slide on the post 3 by retaining the shooing back of Kansas State Mitch Richmond in the 5th position of the 1988 draft. This very young and terribly precocious pair will put up 48.6 points each night.

The first time I came to Golden State, everyone kept telling me how good Chris was,” said Don Nelson. The truth is, he wasn’t that good… He was an alcoholic, he was overweight and I didn’t like his defense. Everything in his life changed. For the better. He used to be just a scorer. He could shoot from long range, get an open shot in, live a quiet life whether he was in shape or not. Now that he’s worked on his conditioning, he drives more, passes more and sees the ball more often.”

For his fourth season, in 1988-89, Mullin offers his first triple-double against the Clippers, a royal stats line (26.5 pts, 5.9 rbds, 5.1 pds), a quote in the second best five NBA and a second trip to the playoffs. In 1987, the Warriors had stalled in the Western Conference semifinals (4-1 against the Lakers after having beaten Utah 3-2). Same score two seasons later, at the same stage: sweep inflicted on Utah then defeat against the Phoenix of the trio Tom Chambers-Eddie Johnson-Kevin Johnson. Don’t panic, it’s the job that comes in. Statistically, Mullin follows in the footsteps of two legends of the franchise, Wilt Chamberlain and Rick Barry (2,000 pts, 400 rbds and 400 pds compiled over a season). With the two golden boys Chris and Mitch, the sun returns to the Bay Area. “Il you’re going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair / If you’re going to San Francisco, you’re gonna meet some gentle people there… “

The birth of “Run TMC

Four years later, in 1991-92, Mullin became a major star in the NBA. Selected in the best five of the League. He was a member of the U.S. team for the Barcelona Olympics. God did not abandon him. Chris got out of hell but before reaching heaven, he had to go through purgatory. Under the guidance of his fitness trainer, Mark Grabow, he lost 14 kg. Forty-five minutes of cycling a day, 350 shots in half an hour, an hour and a half of weight training and two hours of pure basketball training. Sometimes, in addition, 200-meter sets. With this diet, Mullin became a real cannibal of the floors.

During the 1990-91 season, he played 3,315 minutes and broke a record dating back to 1982, while scoring 25.7 points per game. Don Nelson turned his favorite player into a “playmaker on the wing”. His association with point guard Tim Hardaway, selected 14th in the 1989 draft, and Mitch Richmond gave birth to the trio “Run TMC” (for Tim-Mitch-Chris), an explicit reference to the precursor rap group Run DMC. Hardaway, Richmond and Mullin weigh 72.5 points per game between them. This is the most prolific “Big Three” in the league. In the second half of the 1990-91 season, the Warriors became virtually unstoppable. They knocked off the Central Division champion Spurs (3-1) in the first round of the playoffs and gave the Lakers a run for their money in the conference semifinals (4-1). Chris Mullin, who wears #17 in tribute to John Havlicek, his childhood idol, is another man. He has truly established himself as the team’s leader. “During the most negative time in my life, basketball was just a job. Now I feel like I’m a college player again. On my off days, I go to the gym to try to make shots or I solicit partners to play wild games. I’m back to the essence of my passion for the game.”

Compared to Larry Bird

Mullin signs a contract of 27 million dollars over 9 years with the Warriors (3 M$ per year, a very ridiculous sum compared to the current standards…). He could have earned more elsewhere. But this is his way to pay his debt to himself, to Don Nelson, to his club. Chris is a man of honor. He is a player reconciled with himself who averaged 25.6 points in 1991-92 (3rd best NBA scorer). Sixth in the election of the MVP, he is retained, as we said, in the All-NBA First Team. Mullin (2.01 m, 98 kg) is not only an outstanding shooter, a pure shooter credited with 18.2 average points during a career long of 16 years, it is also a complete basketball player (“versatile”, say the Americans), not lacking in the pass. Physically, Chris does not have extraordinary skills. Tall and skinny, he had to work on his technique to exist. He is left-handed but can start on his left or his right and shoot with both hands. Comparisons with Larry Bird are often made. Both are excellent outside shooters. Both lack speed but know how to put their defender in the wind. He’s a miniature Larry Bird,” said Jim O’Brien, the current Pacers coach, then an assistant in New York. They‘re not fast, but they’re both very good at using their bodies coming off screens to dunk their defender and put him out of position just long enough to shoot. It’s complicated to get a two-man shot on them because they’re also excellent passers.”

With his brush cut, the California left-hander has the look of a U.S. Army sergeant. The G.I. Joe of the floors is a very resistant soldier. A Warrior, a real one. For the second year in a row, he has the most playing time in the league. In scoring too, he is keeping pace. Only Wilt Chamberlain had signed four seasons with 25 points or more in Golden State. The series will continue until 1993. In 1992, the California team will not go further than the first round of the playoffs (3-1 against Seattle). The Warriors signed – without knowing it – their death warrant by sending Mitch Richmond to Sacramento the previous fall to get Billy Owens, star inside player from Syracuse University drafted in the 3rd position (read “Billy Owens, victim of the hype”).

Chris Mullin, now a four-time All-Star, experienced a different kind of excitement in Barcelona with the U.S. Olympic team. It was a short-lived respite. The season that followed led the Warriors straight to hell (34 wins). Owens was limited to 37 games because of a knee injury, Mullin himself had to settle for 46 games. In 1993-94, it is Tim Hardaway who spends the year in the infirmary (rupture of knee ligaments) but a promising duo, Latrell Sprewell-Chris Webber, hoists Golden State in playoffs. Sweep inflicted by the Suns. “C-Webb” leaves the Warriors because of a divorce with the coach. Mullin, loyal to the same franchise for 12 years but diminished by injuries over the seasons, will not play a single playoff game in the Bay Area.

In 1997, he is shipped to the Pacers against Erick Dampier and Duane Ferrell. In the spring of 1998, Indiana came close to taking out Chicago in the Eastern Conference Finals (3-4). Mullin started all 82 regular season games and scored 11.3 points. But little by little, Larry Bird dismissed him in favor of Jalen Rose. The following year, it was New York that clinched its ticket to the Finals (4-2). The third attempt is the good one. Knicks elimination (4-2). Chris appears three times during the 2000 NBA Finals (Lakers win 4-2) then returns to Golden State for a farewell tour (20 games at 5.8 pts).

Assistant to the team for two years, the New Yorker inherited the position of Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations in April 2004. In May 2009, his contract was not renewed. As GM, Mullin left a very mixed record. There was of course the return of the Warriors in the playoffs under the leadership of Don Nelson, the arrival of Baron Davis, Stephen Jackson or Al Harrington, inspired draft choices (Ellis, Biedrins …), magnificent picks (Azubuike and Morrow, undrafted). There was also the meticulous dismantling of a team in full rise, the incapacity to provide Golden State with a reliable racket, more doubtful draft choices (O’Bryant, Brandan Wright, Diogu…), too much freedom given to a coach not always mastering his subject and a hazardous management in some key files (Ellis).

Mullin having moved closer to his hometown and to Donnie Walsh, his name has long circulated in the “Big Apple” for a position in the Knicks’ front office. Finally, this father of three boys and a girl, hired by Billy Crystal in 1995 for the movie “Forget Paris”, agreed to become the coach of St John’s, just to complete the circle. He has just left after four seasons with no flavor, but a few hot takes against the referees that he is famous for. He also made his entry into the Hall of Fame in 2011. At the same time as Arvydas Sabonis and Dennis Rodman…

Oh, we almost forgot to mention that Mullin was in conflict with the Warriors for the signature of his first pro contract. He missed training camp and the first six games of the regular season because of a lack of agreement. On signing night, he played 24 minutes and made the winning basket with 15 seconds left…

CV

16 years of NBA career

986 games (822 times starter)

18.2 pts, 4.1 rbds, 3.5 pds, 1.55 int, 0.56 ct

50.9 ux shots, 38.4% 3-pointers, 86.5 ux free throws

Achievements

All-NBA First Team : 1992

All-NBA Second Team : 1989, 91

All-NBA Third Team : 1990

All-Star: 1989, 90, 91, 92, 93

Olympic Champion: 1984, 92