It’s Chris Mullin’s birthday and you probably don’t know how dominant he was

Today is Golden State Warriors legend Chris Mullins’ 56th 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.

Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images

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.

After his playing career, he returned to the Dubs as general manager from 2004-2009. He was at the helm when the Warriors made important moves. Per Basketball Reference:

• June 24, 2004: Selected Andris Biedriņš (1st round, 11th pick) in the 2004 NBA Draft.
• February 24, 2005: Traded Speedy Claxton and Dale Davis to the New Orleans Hornets for Baron Davis.
• June 28, 2005: Selected Monta Ellis (2nd round, 40th pick).
• January 16, 2007: Traded Ike Diogu, Mike Dunleavy, Keith McLeod and Troy Murphy to the Indiana Pacers for Al Harrington, Stephen Jackson, Šarūnas Jasikevičius and Josh Powell.
• June 28, 2007: Traded Jermareo Davidson and Jason Richardson to the Charlotte Bobcats for Brandan Wright. (I really hated this move).

The Warriors made the playoffs six times between 1978 and 2010. Mullin was a player for five of those trips during the late 80’s-early 90’s, and helped design the “We Believe” team of the mid-2000s. He even tried to spare owner Joe Lacob the wrath of Dub Nation after the Monta Ellis trade!

So on this special day, we here at GSoM just wanna give a special thanks to a special guy. We appreciate you Chris Mullin and we hope that your birthday is super lit!