Mull It Over

Chris Mullin is the answer. He will lead the Golden State Warriors to a winning record and a playoff berth while drawing league-wide recognition for his accomplishments.

The catch? It's 1992.

Mullin dons a bright blue and yellow jersey sewn with the number 17 and a small C on his right breast. The Warriors finish 55-27 in the 91-92 season and Mullin makes the All-NBA First Team having averaged 25.6 points and 5.6 rebounds per game.

Fast forward fourteen years to 2006. The team from Golden State holds the league's longest playoff drought and Mullin still attends Warriors games, only the view is from a luxury box, not courtside, and he sports a nice polo shirt and slacks, not thigh-hugging shorts. His track record thus far as a general manager has been shaky, but Mullin's imprint on the franchise is far from finalized.

While many teams take four or five years to rehaul and rebuild, the Warriors have embraced mediocrity and disappointment for 13 seasons, forcing fans to dig deep into their memory banks for brighter days. Ironically the past features the same protagonist as the present and maybe, just maybe, recalling Mullin's playing days will generate some optimism for the upcoming and future seasons.

Flash back to 1992.

Mullin now wears a new color: red, white and blue. He is a member of the original Dream Team, playing alongside the greatest basketball players in the world as a peer, not a student. He plays in all 8 blowouts, starting two games and leading all scorers with 21 points against Puerto Rico. In retrospect his statistics are somewhat shocking, especially given the level of talent on the team.


Check out this sweet Dream Team montage:

Says Magic Johnson of the St. John's graduate,

You can't not like Chris Mullin. He's everything you want in a basketball player and in a teammate.

Not to say Mullin hadn't seen his fair share of adversity. Battling alcoholism and scores of doubters about his speed and athleticism, the Brooklyn native had to tackle every day with a regimented plan, and more importantly, he had to stick with it.

The present-day Golden State Warriors represent another project in need of a plan. Here's hoping Mullin has a blueprint stored away in his office somewhere, occasionally checking it to make sure the team is moving forward.

That is, assuming Mullin's organizational skills (whether personal or business-related) have refined (and not withered) with age.