Jerry Zgoda's Sunday Insider: Wolves' Mark Grabow stretched the very best

Eleven years after he retired, Chris Mullin watched his No. 17 Golden State jersey unfurl Monday in the Oracle Arena rafters right alongside those representing Warriors greats Wilt Chamberlain, Rick Barry and Nate Thurmond, among others.

"My emotions are my memories at this point in my life," he said that night. "After playing so many years, you say while you're playing it's about the people and when all is said and done, it truly is. Whatever happened on the court -- I remember some very good nights and some very tough nights -- ultimately the people who influenced me along the way and the memories of those people is what lasts forever."

And Timberwolves director of athletic performance, Mark Grabow was there for almost all of what Mullin calls "the road I took" from a wayward, overweight rookie with an alcohol addiction to Hall of Fame player whose body and will were equally resolute.

Grabow worked 23 years as the Warriors strength and conditioning trainer and spent 12 of those seasons stretching Mullin's limbs before games and pushing, shoving and leaning on him during workouts that often exceeded six hours on summer days.

"I was trying to figure out the other day how many balls I've passed to Chris over the years," he said. "I lost count. If I had a nickel for every one, I'd be retired. Shagging balls for him was easy because it'd drop right in your hands. It was art."

Grabow was there in 1988 the day Mullin was released from a 30-day alcohol-abuse rehabilitation program in Los Angeles: Picked him up from the airport, drove him to a Cal-Berkeley gym to test his conditioning, and after a demanding 90-minute workout watched him pick up a basketball for the first time in a month and make his first 91 free throws without a miss.

He was there during a 1991 playoff series in Los Angeles when they took a cab together to the Fabulous Forum near midnight and talked a surprised security guard into letting them inside so Mullin could test a knee injury that made him miss Game 1 against the Lakers. He shot for 45 minutes in an arena illuminated only by a security floodlight, then went out the next day and scored 41 points in a memorable duel with Magic Johnson, who answered with 44.

"I've trained a lot of athletes," said Grabow, who has worked with clients in private business ranging from Brian Boitano and Andy Roddick to Mullin and David Robinson. "He's probably the one who truly reached his full potential."

In all that time, he watched Mullin kick his addiction and transfer one obsession to another, trading beer for a workout regimen that transformed him into a player with a nonstop motor and 5 percent body fat.

"He always loved the game, and he had all the talent," said Grabow, who was hired by the Wolves before the season as a consultant and is commuting from his Bay Area home.

"The only thing getting in his way was his personal problems. He was like a rat on a treadmill going 100 miles an hour but not going anywhere because he was putting the wrong things in his body. He couldn't just get there. Once he got there, once he conquered those demons, he went straight to the top."

That long road eventually took Mullin to Monday's jersey retirement ceremony, which coincidentally was scheduled the night the Wolves were in town.

"Wouldn't have mattered when or where," Grabow said, "I would have been on the first plane."