Noah Godwin
Assistant Sports Editor
Disclaimer: I was never a huge fan of Karl Malone. Neither he nor the John Stockton-Malone combination excited me.
But athletes who help define and revolutionize their sports as much as Malone do not come along very often, and I can’t help but reflect on his career.
His interview with Ahmad Rashad following the death of Malone’s mother was maybe the most any athlete has let sports fans into his life.
Malone forgetting to announce that he was retiring in the press conference on Sunday that he held for that reason was pretty funny.
Kobe Bryant alleging that Malone made inappropriate sexual comments to Bryant’s wife during a game, true or not, was pretty sad.
But the roller-coaster years at the end of his career should not make us forget that when God thought of power forwards, he had Malone in mind.
That assertion is assuming, of course, that nobody could have foreseen David Robinson getting injured so that the Spurs could get the top pick the following year to nab Tim Duncan and force Duncan, a center, to be considered a power forward.
It is also assuming that Kevin Garnett is not considered just a power forward.
It had to be that God wanted Malone to become the standard-bearer at his position.
There can be almost no other explanation as to how a country boy from Louisiana who honed his skills at Louisiana Tech University could become one of the most prolific and reliable players in NBA history.
He changed forever the way power forwards play the game. He ran the floor harder than literally every one of his opponents, proving time and again that if a big guy is willing to recklessly sprint the length of the floor he will be rewarded with easy buckets.
He rightfully earned a reputation as somewhat of a gritty player because when he came crashing down the lane, Malone always greeted defenders with his sharp elbows and brutalizing knees.
It was not much more comfortable for opponents at the other end of the floor, either.
“The Mailman” all but patented at least two defensive maneuvers.
The first was his ability to disrupt an offensive move by slapping the ball before his opponents elevated. Almost all defensive instruction before Malone focused on meeting the ball at the point of release — Malone blocked it before the ball ever left their hands.
His other maneuver wasn’t as violent or athletic, but it damaged many of his opponents’ egos.
Malone, who posted people up as much as anybody, recognized that post players almost always leaned back to get a feel for the location of the defender.
Malone simply started, as he called it, “pulling the chair” and backing away. The offensive player, expecting his defender to be close as all coaches taught, would many times keep leaning so far back that he lost his balance and fell down for a traveling violation.
These innovative acts frustrated his opponents throughout his career.
But the hardest thing to do in sports is the consistent repetition of an act that is difficult for most players to do even once.
The Mailman’s career numbers reinforce wholeheartedly what the nickname suggests: that his play was a near-perfect model of consistency.
In 19 seasons, he scored 36,928 points. Only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored more.
He was an All-Star 14 times, winning the Al- Star MVP honors in 1989 and sharing it in 1993 with his inseparable teammate Stockton. He was MVP of the league in 1998.
In his first 18 seasons, he missed only 10 games.
He led the Utah Jazz to the NBA Finals in consecutive years, only to be outdone, of course, by Michael Jordan’s Bulls.
His teams’ regular-season records were a combined 436 games over .500.
He helped his teams to the Western Conference Finals six times andthe NBA Finals three times.
His career was merely unfortunate in terms of NBA Championships in that it paralleled that of the greatest player of all time.
The relative few of us who take time to remember these many things he did, and not just what he failed to do, can quietly offer a pretentious smile when one of our friends brings up Karl Malone, “that guy who could never win anything.”
02-17-2005