In A Golden State

MIDNIGHT

Chris Mullin is an alcoholic 24 hours a day, but the days are all different now. The fog has lifted. No way to get lost now. Sometimes Mullin will pick out a star and have a talk with his father. "I can feel his strength," he says. They'll talk basketball, life—jeez, even babies now. Yeah, he'll pass on every thing he learned from Rod but one.

"What I'm doing now is what I've always envisioned," he says. "It just took me a little while to get there. I was a little fogged out for a while, but that's cool. I appreciate it even more." We wouldn't go back for anything in the world.

There is a picture in the hall of Mullin and his dad and Carnesecca. Mullin takes the picture down and kisses his father. "Before he died, he told me he wasn't worried about me anymore," he says. "When he left, he said, 'You're gonna be O.K. You got the program down.' "

Past midnight now. Time to get out the little black book.