Chris Mullin Is One Laid Back Guy, Will Toy With You About Kelenna Azubuike

Notes from a trip to the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.

Chris Mullin has had a pretty eventful offseason. He lost his star player (Baron Davis) to the Los Angeles Clippers, signed Corey Maggette, signed Ronnie Turiaf, and now is trying to decide whether to match the Clippers' offer sheet on Kelenna Azubuike. You'd never know the guy has so much on his mind at summer league though. He's been watching the games intently, keeping an eye out for talent, shaking pretty much everyone's hand, signing autographs and pretty much just taking it easy. It seems like everyone knows him and is happy to see him, stopping to shake his hand and chat with him. He did take a few minutes out of his time to talk to me about a few things, though, and gave me the scoop on the Azabuike signing. Almost.

MM: What's summer league like for a GM?

CM: Summer League is all about giving guys opportunities to show what they can do. You know, scoring, like they might not be able to in other situations, so you see what they're capable of. You can explore what they can do.

MM: What do you feel like Ronnie Turiaf brings to your club?

CM: Great experience, a lot of help on the boards, shot blocks, defense, guys that can do those things, but keep our pace. He's actually really fast. It's not often that you get big guys that can do that, so we think he's going to be really great for our team.

MM: How happy are you with the development of Brandan Wright, Anthony Randolph and Richard Hendrix?

CM: Well, Hendrix hasn't played yet, but hopefully he gets some time today. Randolph's got incredible talent, it'll be key to see if he can fit in our system. He's such a young guy, just turned 19 a few days ago. Brandan's steadily improving, and that's what we wanted to see here.

MM: I know there's almost no chance you're going to answer this, but I'll ask anyway. Do you guys plan on matching for Kelenna Azubuike?

CM: Oh, I'll tell you. We're definitely going to match ... or not match.

(Mullin smirks and nudges me with his shoulder. I try not to detonate from the sheer absurdity of this.)

MM: I know this sounds odd, but I've been asking everybody this. Stephon Marbury got a head tattoo. What would be your reaction if one of your players got a head tattoo?

CM: ... (shakes head)

MM: Thanks a lot for your time.

CM: No problem, enjoy the games.

I'd like to thank Mr. Mullin for taking time out of his busy relaxing schedule to talk to me, and for giving me a brief moment of hope regarding Azubuike before completely crushing my hopes of breaking that story. It's always good to be toyed with by a former NBA player and GM while you're watching Zang Songtao race up and down the floor.