Mike Dunleavy, the former N.B.A. coach, was looking to get back into coaching in March 2015 when he heard that St. John’s had parted ways with Steve Lavin. Five years removed from his last job on a bench, he reached out to an old friend, Chris Mullin, about the opening, to see if Mullin would vouch for him as a reference.
“When the St. John’s job came open, I had some other people come approach me,” Dunleavy said Thursday. “A bunch of Wall Street guys that I knew said: ‘Hey, look, the St. John’s job is open.