Karl Malone doesn’t want any trouble, but if Kobe Bryant still wants a piece of him, there is a standing offer to “knuckle up.”
Malone joined Huffington Post Live on Wednesday and said he still is willing to fight the Lakers star.
“It’s a standing offer. Look, I don’t want no trouble. I don’t have a problem. People say whatever they want to say and that’s great. I’m 6-9, 272 [pounds] to be exact. I’m not hard to find. I don’t want no trouble. But if something got to go down, I’m not playing fair,” Malone told Huffington Post Live host Marc Lamont Hill.
What’s the beef all about?
Malone is referring to the bad blood that may still exist between the two going back to an incident involving Kobe’s wife, Vanessa, back in 2004. The story goes that The Mailman, attending a Lakers game during his first year of retirement, may have attempted to deliver an inappropriate “package” to Vanessa.
From T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times in 2004:
On Nov. 23, the night the Lakers played the Bucks at Staples Center, Vanessa was talking on the phone to Malone’s wife, Kaye. Kaye gave Vanessa her husband’s cellphone number, and Vanessa called Malone, who was sitting at courtside, and invited Malone’s child to join her.
Malone, wearing cowboy boots and a hat, eventually took the child to Vanessa.
Malone hugged Vanessa, and then Vanessa asked — as Manley recounts this part of the story — “Hey, cowboy, what are you hunting?”
“She said it twice,” Manley said, “and Karl answered the second time, ‘I’m hunting for little Mexican girls.’ ”
After the game Vanessa told Bryant that Malone had come on to her, and said several inappropriate things. She also told Bryant that she had called Malone’s wife and asked Kaye to get her husband away from her.
Bryant called Malone on his cellphone after the game, and Bryant laid into Malone. Bryant said Malone didn’t have much to say in return and didn’t deny anything.
Malone reportedly apologized that night for his offensive comments, but he denied that he was giving Vanessa the old pick-and-roll.
Kobe’s never one to back down from a challenge, but we suggest he lay away in this case. Malone’s not going to play fair so don’t go making a run at him with your one arm and all, Kobe. You’d have a hard enough time against the monstrous Malone with two healthy upper limbs.
H/T Ball Don’t Lie
