karl malone | Larry Brown Sports

Karl Malone puts Scottie Pippen in all-time starting five, no Michael Jordan

June 4, 2013 By Steve DelVecchio 5 Comments

Michael Jordan is widely considered by many to be the greatest all-around player in NBA history. If you asked most people to come up with the best starting five of all-time, most of them would build the lineup around Jordan. Karl Malone is not most people.

During an interview with “The Dan Patrick Show” on Monday, Malone spoke about LeBron James and some of the greatest players who have ever played the game. When asked to name his all-time starting five, Malone took John Stockton and Oscar Robertson as his guards, Wilt Chamberlain at center, LeBron at power forward and Scottie Pippen at small forward. Pippen and no Jordan — really?

“Scottie Pippen led the team in every statistical category while he was there without Michael Jordan,” Malone explained. “That’s why I have to put him there. So now you know.”

But when Jordan was there, the Bulls won six NBA championships. In fairness to Malone, the best starting five is not the same as the top five players of all time. His top five players could all be centers for all we know. That being said, it would have been an acceptable answer to put MJ at small forward or shooting guard. Robertson and Pippen over Jordan is crazy.

Malone’s answer would be surprising if he didn’t say the exact same thing in an interview last year. For whatever reason, he loves Pippen and refuses to give Jordan the same amount of credit everyone else gives him. Toward the end of the interview, Malone also admitted that he has a “man crush” on LeBron James. If he has a crush on LeBron, he must be in love with Scottie.

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Filed Under: Basketball Tagged With: karl malone, Scottie Pippen

Charles Barkley says he’s better than Karl Malone

June 19, 2012 By Larry Brown 6 Comments

There are three players from the current era and two from the past era of NBA players that make the conversation of greatest power forward of all time. Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, and Dirk Nowitzki make the list from the current era. Charles Barkley and Karl Malone make the list from the past era.

Barkley has said that Tim Duncan is the greatest power forward of all time, but he’s not as generous with his ranking of Karl Malone, who many have second on the list.

“You take Karl. Karl needed John Stockton. That’s not a knock on Karl; it’s just a fact. I could get mine any time I wanted to. So I’ll say it on the record: I was better than Karl,” Barkley told Jack McCallum. “Nothing against Karl. He was great. But I was better. The only thing he did better than me was score, and that came down to John Stockton.”

Barkley also says he’s one of the 20 best players all time.

“Look, I’m in the top twenty of players who ever lived,” says Charles. “When I first started out, they said, ‘He’ll never make it. Too short.’ That never even concerned me. Because you know what? I could get all my stuff on my own.”

Barkley cites some career statistics that place him in exclusive company, and he also says Chuck Daly told him he was the second-best player on the Dream Team.

Barkley makes a convincing argument for himself, but I believe his logic is faulty.

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Filed Under: Basketball Tagged With: Charles Barkley, karl malone

Karl Malone says he would start a team with Scottie Pippen over Michael Jordan

June 13, 2012 By Steve DelVecchio 12 Comments

Has the Mailman lost his mind? In anticipation of the “Dream Team” documentary that is set to air on NBA TV Wednesday night, a few basketball Hall of Famers and members of the 1992 US men’s Olympic team appeared on the Dan Patrick Show Wednesday to discuss various topics. Karl Malone was one of the guests, and he was asked which member of the Dream Team he would take if he was starting his own team. I bet you couldn’t guess his answer if we gave you ten tries.

“I would have to start my team with Scottie Pippen,” Malone said according to CSNChicago.com. “This is why I would take Scottie: Do you remember the time that Michael retired? I watched Scottie Pippen when the Chicago Bulls weren’t really good and Scottie led that team in every statistical category, and I just remembered that. Plus, he’s a guy who could care less about scoring. He wants to stop the best player on the other team. That would have been pretty cool, to see Scottie guarding Michael.”

Do you remember that time Jordan won three championships, left the Bulls for season and came back and won three more? We do too. Do you remember those times M.J. won five NBA MVPs and 10 scoring titles? Us too.

I get that Pippen held down the fort when Jordan left and Malone was probably making a reference to how great of a teammate Pippen was, but we’re talking about Michael Jordan. Jordan probably wouldn’t have won six titles without Scottie. However when His Airness is a part of the discussion, nobody’s going to criticize you for giving the obvious response.

H/T Pro Basketball Talk
Photo credit: Rob Grabowski-US PRESSWIRE

Filed Under: Basketball Tagged With: karl malone, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen

Jazz owner Greg Miller denies Karl Malone’s story, says legend is lying

February 4, 2012 By Larry Brown 1 Comment

Utah Jazz owner and CEO Greg Miller sent a tweet and wrote a blog post Friday night in response to Karl Malone, calling the franchise legend a liar.

Malone, a Hall of Fame player, co-hosted a radio show recently and took the Jazz to task. The former 14-time All-Star with the Jazz ripped the organization’s handling of long-time coach Jerry Sloan, who stepped down last season after getting into an argument with star point guard Deron Williams.

“On the whole handling of that, I would have to give [them] a D or F, and I would lean more toward an F,” Malone said. “I know for a fact that [Sloan] was overridden on practices sometime on the road because Deron was calling our G.M. at that time … You give a guy that much power, and he’s the kind of player you think he played hard all the time, but if he wanted to sulk he could sulk. … I never went to Larry [Miller] to talk about Coach Sloan. … It’s not one time, in my gut and heart, that I would go over his head.”

Malone said he went to Utah to express concern and had to buy a ticket to a Jazz game from a scalper after being told by the team there weren’t any tickets available to him. Miller denies that was the case. He sent a tweet Friday night saying Malone was lying:

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Filed Under: Basketball Tagged With: Greg Miller, karl malone, Utah Jazz

Karl Malone Impregnated 13-Year-Old?

May 1, 2008 By Larry Brown 8 Comments

Apparently The Mailman was delivering his goods to local middle schools while he was at Louisiana Tech. Many people missed the story over the weekend of Demetrius Bell, a 7th round pick by the Buffalo Bills. Bell is the son of Karl Malone, though The Mailman had no role in his life and told him it was too late to be his father when the two finally spoke a few years ago. Well if you thought this story was pretty bad, then you haven’t heard the whole thing. A report from The Buffalo News presented by MDS at FanHouse suggests that Bell’s mother was only 13 when Malone got her pregnant. That is freaking disgusting.

Yeah, I heard about Andrew Bynum dipping onto campuses for his action, but at least we’re talking about a college campus, not a freaking middle school. This is gross. Disgusting. And why am I not surprised that the same guy having sex with youngins is a deadbeat dad? Seems to go hand in hand. This dude is giving Travis Henry a run for his money, and Henry had like nine kids from nine women or something. Now what’s worse: a 13-year-old having sex, Malone nailing a young kid while he’s in college, or Malone being a deadbeat dad? Whatever your answer, somewhere Roger Clemens is smiling.

Filed Under: Basketball Tagged With: karl malone