Aug. 10, 2011
STEINMETZ ARCHIVE
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Matt Steinmetz
CSNBayArea.com
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Former Warrior Chris Mullin will be enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday in Springfield, Mass. Mullin, who played 13 of 16 NBA seasons with the Golden State Warriors, sat down recently with writers to discuss his career.CSNBayarea.com asked him about some of the people and players he most remembers from his playing days:
BEST TEAMMATE: Mitch Richmond. "No doubt," said Mullin. "I still remember the day he came to my hotel room -- it was before a game -- and told me he'd been traded (by the Warriors to Sacramento). We were both -- like -- in shock."TOUGHEST DEFENDER: Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. "They could smother you," Mullin said. "Those twoI didn't really play against them a lot playing here (in Golden State). In Indiana -- I wish I would have been a little younger, but those two were the toughest."BEST BIG MAN HE PLAYED WITH: Chris Webber. "(Indiana teammate Rik) Smits, I think, right? Well, Webber. But that was for one year, though. Bill Wennington was good but he got better as a pro. In college, he was more of a role player. I'd say Smits. But it was Webber, obviously, talent-wise. But that was just for one year."MOST UNDERRATED: Sarunas Marciulionis. "He wasn't underrated if you played against him. No disrespect to (Drazen) Petrovic and (Arvydas) Sabonis, but he was the first guy that I remember that not only came over and did well, but did very well. One year off the bench he played at all-star level, 18 or 19 points off the bench. "To me, when he came over it was like'You don't have to come here and be a role player. You can have a huge influence on a team.' At that time we were good. We had me, Mitch and Tim (Hardaway) and he was right there. You talk about being hard on a guy. Nellie (Former Warriors coach Don Nelson) was hard on him. Thank god at the time he didn't understand any English.COACH: Lou Carnesecca. "People think I just knew him from St. John's and playing for him there. But I knew him when I was 12-years-old, going to his camps. He's way more than a coach to me."