BOISE, Idaho — THIS DAY IN SPORTS…July 24, 1963:
A mailman is born. Karl Malone, a two-time NBA Most Valuable Player and a Basketball Hall of Famer, was selected in 1996 as one of the “50 Greatest Players in NBA History.” Malone was Utah’s first round pick in the 1985 draft and followed with 17 stellar seasons as power forward with the Jazz, teaming with guard John Stockton all the way through and scoring 36,928 points. Malone made 1,471 career starts in the NBA, the most all-time. The only five times he came off the bench all occurred during his rookie season with the Jazz. Malone also played 1.412 games with Stockton, the most ever by two players on the same team.
Stockton, the NBA’s career assists leader, sent the ball Malone’s way, and he delivered, earning the nickname “The Mailman.” With Stockton and Malone at a peak, the Jazz made the NBA Finals in both 1997 and 1998. But they had the unfortunate assignment of dealing with the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan as their opponents. Malone had won his first NBA Most Valuable Player award over Jordan in 1997, but Jordan was MVP of the Finals as the Bulls won four games-to-two. In 1998, Malone (and Stockton) tried to will Utah to victory, but Chicago won in six games again, capped by what is commonly called the greatest shot of Jordan’s career in Game 6.
Malone played his final season with the L.A. Lakers in 2003-04, with the expressed desire to finally win an NBA championship. Malone missed 39 games with a knee injury but was back for the Lakers playoff run. The team made it to the Finals but lost the title in five games to the Detroit Pistons. Malone was inducted twice into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010, once for his individual career and once as a part of the USA Dream Team in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.
The Jazz retired Malone’s jersey in 2006 and unveiled a statue outside the Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City next to one of Stockton. The city also renamed a portion of a street in his honor, creating the intersection of Stockton and Malone at the site of the statues. Malone has been married to former Miss Idaho USA Kay Kinsey since 1990 and has spent some quality time in the Gem State over the years. Karl Malone…60 years old today.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
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