Catching up with... Jeff Mullins

Jeff Mullins twice has bid farewell to basketball, but at age 67, he remains part of the game.

A guard who ranks sixth on the Warriors' career scoring list (12,547 points), Mullins retired a year after the team's 1975 championship season. Mullins stayed out of basketball for nearly a decade before becoming the head coach at UNC Charlotte in 1985.

He won 182 games in 11 seasons with the 49ers, retiring in 1996. These days, Mullins and his wife, Candy, split time between suburban Charlotte and Vero Beach, Fla. He works doing real-estate investing and managing properties - and is the president of the board of directors of the Legends of Basketball.

It's a nonprofit organization of former pro players designed to help some of their less fortunate brethren, to promote community projects and simply to enable players to stay in touch with each other.

"You'd be amazed at the fellowship you see between different generations of players, and intra-generational, too," Mullins said.

Despite knee-replacement surgery about 18 months ago, Mullins stays active by playing tennis and golf. Before the operation, Mullins called his former coach, Al Attles.

"I asked him to pay for part of it," Mullins joked. "As my coach, he wore (my knees) out."

Actually, Attles limited Mullins' minutes in the 1974-75 season. Attles usually played five guards in each game.

"He did a really good job of situational coaching," Mullins said of Attles. "We won ... a lot of different ways that year - and he was the one pulling the strings."

One of Mullins' fondest memories of the '74-'75 title involves a then-young CBS broadcaster by the name of Brent Musburger, who handled the play-by-play of the Warriors' sweep of Washington in the NBA Finals.

Said Mullins: "I'll never forget, the first game, I was out warming up early and we were talking and he said, 'Now, Jeff, this is my big break. I really would like to do more than four games. Try to extend it a little bit.' "

After the Warriors won the first three games, Musburger told Mullins, "I thought they were going to sweep you in four."