Yesterday was Golden State Warriors legend Chris Mullins’ 60th birthday, and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than by asking you good folks a question: do you know how great he was?
He’s probably best known for being the “C” in the electric Warriors’ trio of “Run TMC”. He along with Tim Hardaway and Mitch Richmond put Golden State in the playoffs during the early 90’s under coach Don Nelson. As a kid during the early 90s, I just knew Mullin could shoot threes and was a beast in NBA Jams.
In the present day I rarely see his name brought up in the discussion of legendary small forwards. Guys like Larry Bird, Scottie Pippen, and Dominique Wilkins dominate the conversation, but what about Mully? I did some research on him for one of my first YouTube videos for the GSoM channel, and even I was surprised to learn how ridiculous he was.
His accolades are no joke:
5x All-Star
4x All-NBA
1992 Olympic Gold Medalist as member of the “Dream Team”.
5 straight seasons averaging at least 25 PPG.
Hall-of-Famer
Check out this quote from Bill Simmons’ “The Book of Basketball” describing Dream Team coach Chuck Daly’s wishlist for the supersquad:
“(In order): Jordan, Magic, Robinson, Ewing, Pippen, Malone, Mullin. So the NBA’s top coach at the time ranked Mullin behind Jordan and PIppen as the third-best perimeter player during the deepest run of talent in NBA history.
Here’s the point: Chris Mullin was really freaking good”.
Unfortunately, his body broke down from destroying so many opponents and he was unable to maintain his level of dominance post-1993.