sefko on nellie and mullin

[JLEEHASMUCHGAME]

didn't read the whole article cause I'm tired right now, but got the jist of it. Love him or hate him, nellie's a pretty good guy.



Mullin tackled alcoholism with a Nelson assist

02:32 AM CST on Monday, November 8, 2004

By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News

Seventeen years ago, Don Nelson pulled off the best coaching job of his career. It had nothing to do with basketball and everything to do with life. And it continues to bring him joy today.

A promising, young sharpshooter named Chris Mullin was starting his third season with Golden State. For two years, Mullin had teased the Warriors with his talent.

Nelson, who was hired as executive vice president of the Warriors before the 1987-88 season and a year later began coaching them, almost immediately heard rumors about Mullin.
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Binge drinking had replaced basketball as Mullin's sport of choice.

"I'd heard reports of him drinking and staying up to all hours of the night," Nelson said. "He was constantly getting intoxicated and suffering all the after-effects that go along with that.

"I knew if something wasn't done, he never would have reached his potential as a player. Worse than that, he would have failed as a person."

Nelson refused to allow that to happen. With the blessing of Mullin's family and agent, Nelson told Mullin that he was wasting his talent and his life.

"He helped me confront it," Mullin said of his alcohol dependency. "The platform had to be laid out for me. It had to be me who followed through on it. But he put it on the plate for me rather than ignoring the situation. To have somebody there for that kind of support, to be there with you, it meant a lot."

So on Dec. 13, 1987, Mullin took a leave from the Warriors, went to a Los Angeles-area rehab clinic and got clean.

This is a story with much irony. Nelson is a man who dearly loves his adult beverages. But he knows there is a time and a place for everything. And he could have had no way of knowing back then that helping Mullin straighten out his priorities would pay dividends down the road.

Mullin now is executive vice president of basketball operations for the Warriors and has been the guiding force behind two major trades between Golden State and Dallas in the last two years.

When Nelson sees Mullin tonight, as the Warriors visit American Airlines Center, it will give him a warm feeling knowing he had something to do with Mullin's success.

After giving up alcohol, Mullin averaged more than 25 points for five consecutive seasons, became a five-time all-star, earned a spot on the original U.S. Olympic Dream Team and stamped himself as one of the best pure shooters in NBA history.

Perhaps none of it would have happened if Nelson had not intervened.

"He may have turned it around on his own," Nelson said. "We'll never know. I was just the guy who happened to be there when it was time."

Coaching is Nelson's life. He can't play a friendly game of barroom shuffleboard without schooling his partner on how to slide the weight.

It was simply in his nature to help Mullin when he saw a need. And thanks to the blessings of Mullin's mother and father, as well as agent Bill Pollack, Nelson was able to tackle the problem. And the problem had become obvious, starting with compulsive tardiness.

And that wasn't the only issue.

"He was irresponsible," Nelson said. "He was fatigued. He was forgetful. It was all well documented."

That's when Nelson called Mullin into his office to open a can of face-to-face tough love.

"He wasn't a happy guy," Nelson said. "And we weren't a happy team. He was a New York guy and didn't like being away from family and friends on the West Coast.

"I had all my ducks lined up. I knew what was going on, and I told him he had a serious problem. Chris didn't deny anything. He acknowledged that there was a problem. And he believed me when I told him I was thinking of him and the team. He knew the seriousness of it, and he was ready. A person has to be ready to make a change before anybody can talk to him about it."

And so, during a 22-game leave of absence from the team, Mullin went through therapy.

"Nobody knew what was going to happen," Mullin said. "I could have come out of it and been a worse player. He didn't know. I didn't know. To take that risk with each other and get my life back together was something I'll never forget. That support was everything. And still is."

Not that there weren't difficult times when Mullin returned. It was a struggle for a few weeks on the court. He was inconsistent.

"But the change in his life was great," Nelson says. "He was becoming stronger and stronger. And then he became the leader I needed for that team, him and Timmy Hardaway."

Mullin dedicated his life to fitness after that, spending hours in the weight room toning his body.

The discipline returned to his life, helping him reach great heights as a player and now helping him become a respected player-personnel executive around the league.

That the Mavericks and Warriors have been periodic trade partners is no surprise.

"You make deals with people you communicate with," Nelson said. "You're not going to talk to people you don't particularly like. And if you don't talk, you won't make deals. Chris has always been easy to talk to, and so we've made two or three deals with him. It's very gratifying to see the way his life has turned out."

And Mullin still considers Nelson a huge part of his life.

"I know Nellie probably as well as anybody, and there are a lot of nice, human things that he does that most people just don't see," Mullin said. "Sometimes he gets painted as a cold guy. But I know the other side. And I'll always appreciate that part of him. It's worked out to be a wonderful relationship.

"Who knows? It may have turned around for me anyway. But what really matters is that Nellie helped me at a really difficult time. And I am forever grateful."