Everyone knows everyone about Chris Mullin's basketball experience so I'm not going to convince anyone based on what he's done on the court at SJU, in the NBA, or as an NBA executive. That's in black and white to be decided on its own merits, subjectively for his qualification as coach.
My pitch has to do with Mullin the guy. Not, the player, not the man, and more appropriately da guy.
Mullin came to SJU as I was leaving as a new graduate still working on campus. He came in heralded of course, and we were all curious. One day in mid September, I saw this tall milk white kid outside outside of Alumni Hall. I guessed it might be him, so I went up to him. I introduced myself and welcomed him to St. John's. I'd told him that I was really excited to see him play, and wished him the best. There's something about chatting with Mullin. He never puts himself above you, and is always willing to chat.
After Mullin took the court, he shined like no freshman we'd ever seen at SJU. He was heads and tails the best player on the court, but more importantly, he made everyone else better too. My friends and I sat directly below his mom and dad, and aunts who were nuns. Nice people. I don't remember if it was the end of freshmen or sophomore year when the team was eliminated from the NCAA's. My friends traveled to a ton of away games and we were at the regionals. Milling around in the rotunda after the game, Mullin, who didn't know any of us personally, spotted us and came over. "I just wanted to tell you guys that I've seen you at so many of our away games, and I really appreciate how you supported the team." This was a kid, 19 or 20, with the goodness and kindness to approach fans just to thank them. Big plus.
When he was a junior, I ran into him around Union turnpike in the spring after basketball was over, and stopped him. I asked him if he knew anything he could share about Walter Berry coming here. As always, friendly and candid, he said he hadn't heard anything new, but sure hoped he was coming. No attitude - just two guys talking SJU hoops.
I remember just before the NBA draft, how a good friend of mine who hung around the SJU bars told me that he hoped Mullin would end up somewhere else. I asked him why, and he said he'd see Mullin in the bars all the time, destroying himself. He said he had to get the hell out of New York, or he'd end up dead. To Mullin's credit, he fought demons like a man, attained sobriety, something I believe he maintains today. He whipped himself into the shape of a marine, still looks the part, and his NBA career skyrocketed.
Funny story. My cousin worked in customs at JFK. It's now known that Chris' dad, a great man himself fought alcohol and attained sobriety. Rod was his supervisor. He had the respect of everyone, but my cousin laughed when he said that it was easy to work for him before he got sober but cracked the whip after. I have some friends who have 30, 40 years of sobriety attained one day at a time. To me, anyone who has been sober for so long has become rock solid in ways beyond keeping alcohol at bay. They are better men than had they never touched a drop. Rod is one, and Chris is another.
From the time my son was 8 till he was 17, I wrote to coaches and athletes and asked them to send him a birthday card I enclosed. Mullin was one of the guys who responded, and he sent a warm note in the card.
Now most recently, when he was inducted, there was something I noticed that was different about Mullin. Same old guy for sure. I brought my wife to the induction breakfast. In those days, she came to every single game, and sitting behind the SJU basket at the garden and behind the bench at Alumni Hall, we were often on TV, a testimony more to her looks certainly than mine. So when I asked her if she wanted to go to the breakfast, she didn't hesitate.
At the breakfast,before inductions, Mullin and Coach C. withdrew from their table, and sat together on a window sill with a cup of coffee for 15 minutes or so, undisturbed, just chatting. It was Chris' day, but there was something so comfortable about it, so much of him belonging here and not jsut for a day. After the induction, I asked my wife if she wanted to go up and chat with him, and maybe get a photo with him. She was more than happy to, and grabbed a pen for Chris to autograph her program.
Mullin when we approached him was so gracious and familiar. Before we could really speak he introduced us to an older brother who had played at Siena (I always confuse which borther played at Siena and which at Bridgeport). We told Chris that we sat right beneath his parents, and he joked, "Yup. One loud one, one quiet one." We chatted about his brother Terrence coaching at St. Francis de Sales CYO and that he is often a row behind us at CA. He was really patient as someone struggled with my camera to get a shot. After 4-5 tries it worked, and Chris, patient the whole time, smiled and said "Persistence!"
The whole point is, that if we are to return to prominence, and the kid of prominence that endures, if we are to recapture what was magical about St. John's, not just in 2011, or 2000, but back in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s - the whole era, for my two cents having a guy on the bench who not only was the best who ever played here, but a guy who is from the city and is one of us, and is red and white through and through.
For the doubters about a heralded player becoming a great coach, only one player is inducted into the Hall of Fame as player and coach. He was the best player in college basketball, and then went on to become arguably the greatest coach. His name - John Wooden, and as anyone who knows would tell you, was a far greater man than coach. Not a bad guy for Mullin to emulate, even it it's aiming for the stars. Then again, hasn't Mullin always done that?
