Over 300 men from the New York area have played Big East basketball over the last 40 years--some names well known and others all but forgotten. Of all the greats, only one was a four year all-Big East standout, a three time Big East Player of the Year, and a National Player of the Year. And for those that never saw him play on college, Chris Mullin might have been the best pure shooter ever to come out of the city, then or now.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Mullin learned to shoot in CYO leagues and could hold his own in street ball games across the city. By fourth grade, he won a national foul shooting contest. At the age of 10, he attended a summer basketball camp at St. John's University held by coach Lou Carnesecca, who had just returned to the school following three seasons coaching the ABA's New York Nets. The coach kept tabs on the young man, and when he saw Mullin playing as a high school freshman, told him that he had a spot waiting on the St. John's bench when Mullin was old enough. Offers of a college scholarship to a 14 year old were unheard of in 1977, but Mullin's legend would only grow.

Even in its declining years, Power Memorial had a special place in high school basketball, and Mullin was its next big thing. Despite the fact that he commuted across two subway lines for the daily commute into Manhattan, Mullin was destined to be an All-American at Power, but a public benching by his coach led Mullin to transfer mid-season to a Catholic high school in Brooklyn, Xaverian HS. The transfer came with some risk--the NYCHSAA forced him to sit out a year, giving up most of his junior season and part of his senior season, and that might have hurt his recruiting chances. Upon his return, Mullin scored 17 of the Clippers' first 21 points against Christ the King, and Xaverian was off to the 1980-81 state title. The recruiters never left.

With hundreds of schools showing interest, Mullin didn't forget Carnesecca's offer, and chose St. John's over Duke in a highly contested recruiting battle.

"Of all the players [Mike Krzyzewski] recruited and didn't get, he says he regrets not getting to coach Chris Mullin the most," said basketball scout Tom Konchalski in a 2015 interview.

Mullin started his first game for the Redmen at Madison Square Garden, where St. John's wowed the home crowd with a 20 point win over Xavier. "The first game [he] played here, it was as if he had been at St. John's for 100 years," Carnesecca told Sports Illustrated in 1984.

What was remarkable about Mullin was his consistency. He wasn't the tallest or fastest player on the floor, but his shooting was without peer. As a freshman he shot 53 percent from the floor, most from 15 feet and out, averaging 16 points a game. A second team All-Big East selection as a freshman, he led the Redmen in scoring in 10 games, with a season high 25 in a 80-76 win at Syracuse in the regular season finale, and had 33 points in two games as St. John's advanced to the second round of the 1982 NCAA's.

Mullin's sophomore season doesn't get the historical attention in comparison to the 1984-85 season, but it remains one of the greatest years in St. John's history. The Redmen opened the season with a 78-74 upset of defending national champion North Carolina behind 25 from Mullin, and proceeded to win its first 14 games of the season. Mullin would lead the Redmen in scoring 19 times that season and in nine of the final 12, as the Redmen swept the Big East regular season and conference titles, including a 29 point effort from Mullin in the tournament semifinal versus Villanova and 22 in the final over Boston College. For his efforts, he was named the Big East Player of the year, the first of three consecutive awards he would receive.

It wasn't sheer talent that propelled Chris Mullin to the top. He simply outworked everyone.

"When a blizzard snowed them in at school one year, trainer Ron Linfonte remembers awakening to the sound of a lone bouncing ball in the gym," wrote Newsday in 2015. "There was Mullin passing the time taking shots. And even when the snow subsided, Mullin saw no reason to leave the gym. "He figured if he went home, he'd just put up balls at Xaverian," Linfonte remarked, "so [he] might as well stay here."

Despite a 27-4 record and a #3 national ranking entering the 1983 NCAA's, the Redmen were bounced in the first weekend. But the Chris Mullin legacy only grew into his junior season, where he led the Redmen in scoring in 22 of the last 23 games of an 18-12 season, shooting 57 percent from the field and 90 percent from the line. Highlights included a 30 point game at Connecticut, 33 at Georgetown (shooting 13 of 18 from the field), and a season high 35 in a raucous overtime win over Syracuse that set the all-time on-campus attendance record at St. John's Alumni Hall, now known as Carnesecca Arena.

"In three seasons at the school, Mullin's consistency has been almost tedious: a scoring average that has risen from 16.6 to 19.1 to 22.9, a shooting percentage that now hovers at .562 (mostly from 15-foot range), assists, blocks and rebounding averages that have increased in lock-step every year," wrote Sports Illustrated. "All of this while taking barely 12 shots a game, a preposterously unselfish figure for a rifle of such accuracy."

Mullin joined fellow Big East junior Patrick Ewing on the 1984 U.S. Olympic basketball team, which won the gold medal at the Los Angeles games, and Mullin was compared to a New York version of Larry Bird. Mullin and Ewing shared the award in 1984 because, it was alleged by national writers that John Thompson voted for Dwayne Washington so Mullin would not win the award outright. Regardless, it was apparent that Ewing and Mullin were the biggest stories of college basketball heading into the 1984-85 season.

For one magical year, St. John's stood at the summit of college basketball. The 1984-85 Redmen were a once in a generation team, with six future NBA players on the squad. And despite a puzzling 62-59 loss at Niagara early in the season, they were just short of unstoppable thereafter, rising to #2 in the national polls heading into the fourth Saturday of January, where Mullin's 20 points led St. John's to end Georgetown's 28 game winning streak, 66-65, at Capital Centre. The win catapulted St. John's to #1 in the nation, standing at the top for five weeks until Georgetown turned the tables on them at Madison Square garden, 92-80, despite 25 from Mullin in a losing effort.

After three early exits, the Redmen marched through the 1985 NCAA's, with Mullin at the forefront. He opened with 21 in a win over Southern, followed by 26 in a 68-65 cliffhanger over Arkansas. Getting past the first round, Mullin stepped it up yet again, with 30 in a 86-70 win over Kentucky and 25 as St. John's advanced to its first Final Four since 1952 in a 69-60 win over North Carolina State.

Had they been in any other bracket, chances were good that St. John's would have played for the NCAA championship; instead, they were paired with Georgetown. The Hoyas held Mullin to a season low eight points in a 77-59 semifinal rout. The Redmen won 26 of its final 29 games of the season, but its three losses were to Georgetown, denying Mullin a final game on the championship stage. Still, many Georgetown fans contend that Mullin was the best opponent the Hoyas ever faced.

The leading scorer in St. John's history, shared National Player of the Year honors with Patrick Ewing. Some saw the Mullin awards as a protest of sorts against John Thompson's Georgetown's frosty relationship with the press, but there was no denial that Mullin was a remarkable presence on the floor. In the end, each school could honor its greatest player ever with an award worthy of their contributions.

Chris Mullin played 16 years in the NBA, averaging 18.2 points a game. He was a five time NBA All-Star, in addition to being a member of the 1992 "Dream Team" that won the Olympic gold medal for the United States. He was selected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011 and served four years as head coach at St. John's from 2015 to 2019.

"I feel good about the four years I coached at St. John's," Mullin said to Newsday in 2019. "It's a special place to me. My kids go there. I met my wife there. So way beyond my four years playing there, my four years coaching, relationships, first and foremost with coach Carnesecca, that's how I became part of St. John's. Met him when I was 10. He was my college coach, but way more than that.

"Things are well, life is good. Healthy, happy, and just kind of moving forward."