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Lou Carnesecca is always impressed when Chris Mullin’s name is mentioned to him on the street.
“I walk down Union Turnpike now and some elderly woman will say, “How’s Mullin doing?” said Carnesecca, the legendary former St. John’s coach. “All these years later.”
All these years later, after splashing the nets of practically every important New York City playground as a teenager, sizzling as a lefty sniper at Alumni Hall for St. John’s in the 1980s and becoming a five-time All-Star with Golden State after winning a battle with alcoholism, Mullin is heading into the Basketball Hall of Fame Friday.
Carnesecca will be his presenter in Springfield, Mass. Perfect. Consummate New York City coach presenting for the consummate New York City gym rat of a basketball player out of Flatbush.
“He’s a true purist,” Carnesecca told The Post. “He exemplified the New York basketball player — the CYO, the club games, summer games on playgrounds. If there was a game, he was there. He’d play against anybody — the good guys, the so-so guys, and he never wore a big hat. Never had a big head. I’m honored.”
In an interview this week with The Post, Mullin said the best part of Friday’s induction will be having Carnesecca there.
Certainly Mullin, who still lives in the Bay Area after serving as Golden State’s president, is touched that Warriors ambassador Al Attles, Warriors general manager Larry Riley and Warriors new coach and former St. John’s teammate Mark Jackson will make the trek to Springfield.
But nothing beats Carnesecca, whom he has known since he was 12 when he attended the coach’s camps.
“Obviously the biggest memory at St. John’s was making it to the Final Four [in 1985], and we all wish we would’ve won [against Georgetown],” Mullin said. “But my time there goes behind any Final Four. It’s with Coach Carnesecca. Thirty six years later, I’m still close to him like I am. That’s the greatest gift I got from St. John’s. My relationship with him is what I cherish most of all.”
They talk on the phone regularly. When Mullin, an ESPN analyst, is in New York, he will stop by Carnesecca’s office on campus.
Mullin still just calls him “Coach.”
“My four years there were like a dream,” Mullin said. “It was so good I didn’t want to leave.”
No, Mullin never wanted to leave New York, and that is why Carnesecca never felt worried when Duke made a frenzied push to try and recruit Mullin.
Coach Mike Krzyzewski considers it one of his biggest recruiting defeats. That’s how good Mullin was at Power Memorial and Xaverian.
“I had that feeling he wouldn’t leave,” Carnesecca said. “Knowing Mull, he was a New Yorker and talks about himself as a New Yorker.”
Mullin actually has had a spot in the Hall of Fame for a long time. As an 11-year-old, Mullin captured the national championship in the Elks free-throw shooting contest — a multi-round competition that began in Brooklyn and ended in Kansas City. The Hall honored the Elks champs with a display.
“I think I hit 23 of 25,” Mullin recalls. “It became easy for me because I did it so much, the muscle memory. No matter where I went in the competition, I imagined I was in my backyard.”
So, the legend began.
“Every shot he made on that court, it was like Toscanini, the conductor,” Carnesecca said. “Nothing happens in performance that doesn’t happen in rehearsal and he certainly rehearsed. He loved it — a fanatic.”
Forget that Mullin became part of the AAU leagues with the famed Riverside Church. Mullin played everywhere — the Flatbush kid heading up to Harlem’s Rucker Park, the West 4th Street courts, 58th Street, 139th in the Mitchell House, where Tiny Archibald ran charity games and watched from the door. He played on the famed 108th Street court in Rockaway, and found games in Elmhurst and Corona.
“Every game I ever played in, the players were quicker or jumped higher — at every level,” Mullin said. “That was the good thing about playing in the city. But I was a different style of player. What I had was a need on every team. There were runners and jumpers, but you could always use the guy who can knock down an outside shot.
“That’s why I always blended in well.”
“It was a huge advantage in a lot of ways [growing up in New York],” Mullin added. “The players who came before me. Kareem [Abdul Jabbar], Tiny [Archibald], Bernard King, Ernie Grunfeld, Connie Hawkins, Dr. J. I was in the ninth, 10th grade and Tiny is watching our games. So many guys you can aspire to be and look up to — besides the competition.”
Mullin’s dreamy career took a desperate turn when he left for Oakland to start his NBA life after being selected seventh by the Warriors.
Mullin, who always had enjoyed beer growing up in an Irish-Catholic family, struggled with the jarring change of leaving New York and became an alcoholic. He checked into rehab center after his third NBA season in 1988, joined AA and it saved his career.
“The first time leaving, I had everything here, family, basketball, girlfriend, fans,” Mullin said. “I probably wasn’t ready to make that move. I did it reluctantly, and it showed. I got to rehab and got my life straightened out and I had five, six really good [NBA] years.”
After treating his addiction, Mullin went with a military buzz cut and buzzed his way to five straight seasons of averaging at least 25 points for Golden State.
“The call I’ll never forget, he said, ‘Coach, I can’t even have another drink on St. Patty’s Day,’ ” Carnesecca said.
But Mullin regained his legendary work ethic and that silky shot. Warriors equipment manager Eric Housen remembers going with Mullin to a kids camp in 1997. During a drill, Mullin made 33 consecutive 3-pointers with “the big ball” — the oversized one NBA players use to improve their shot, as there’s less space to go through the rim.
“Sometimes I feel I exceeded expectations, looking at the players I played against and my physical attributes,” Mullin said. “Once I got adjusted to the NBA, I feel I always fit in.”
The shame of it is Mullin never did it for the Knicks, despite all the early trade rumors during his early-career struggles.
Mullin attended Knicks playoffs games when Pat Riley coached in the early 1990’s.
“I would say there was part regret when I got my game together and we were eliminated,” Mullin said. “Going to those Riley games, I really wanted to get a piece of that and play in that atmosphere. I did play in that atmosphere, but on the other team.”Indeed. Former Pacers president Donnie Walsh signed Mullin late with Indiana, which lost to the Knicks in the 1999 Eastern Finals.
“The year Jess Kersey beat us,” Mullin said jokingly, referring to Larry Johnson’s controversial four-point play.
Walsh, now the former president of the Knicks, wanted to bring Mullin to New York to be his general manager and groom him for the presidency.
“Chris is deserving of induction into the Hall both as a player and person,” Walsh wrote in an email. “One of the game’s great shooters. One of the best to come out of New York City –high school, college, NBA. St. John’s should be proud.”