The Mailman won't deliver any more. He just retired at the age of 41. And with his passing has finally come to a close the age of the 80s that saw the meteoric rise of the NBA into public consciousness in the US.
He leaves behind a legacy of consistency and endurance of a magnitude almost beyond credulity. In 18 seasons of 82 games each (not counting the Playoffs that the Jazz went to every one of those seasons) he missed a grand total of 10 games! In his final season, with the Los Angeles Lakers, he demonstrated a level of physical fitness and stamina that put even LA's superstar center, 32-year old Shaquille O'Neal to shame, relentlessly competing against players half his age.
Malone leaves the game 1,539 points adrift of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's all-time scoring record of 38,387 points in second place, above both MJ and Wilt Chamberlain. He is also 6th all-time in total rebounds collected and 2nd in total minutes spent on the court. Over 19 years of banging down in the low-post and setting picks on top of the key, the Mailman's scoring average was a solid 25.0 ppg, good enough for 10th place all time.
People may drool over the shooting skills and big-game temperament of Larry Bird, or the dominant scoring of Elgin Baylor, or the sheer physicality of Sir Charles, or the Celtics' John Havliceck and Kevin McHale.
But if there is one player who defined the power forward position, it has to be Karl Malone. What with the plethora of talent at the 4 spot these days, Duncan, Garnett, Nowitzki, O'Neal and Stoudamire all possible HOFers, it is easy to forget the impact that Malone had on the game in his 19 playing years.
While his supremacy as a power forward may be questioned, none may surpass the place in history, as a forward-guard duo, that Malone and Stockton occupy. Over 50000 points and 20000 assists and 18 back-breakingly consistent years of on-court heroics later, the two veterans have both now moved on, Stockton back in May 2003, Malone now in 2005.
We will all miss Malone, the Utah Jazz not least. His legendary work ethic, his freakish fitness regimen, his great heart, and lastly the tragedy of his fruitless quest for a championship ring over 19 long years of toil shall form a part of basketball lore forever.
Farewell, Karl Malone. Michael Jordan denied you the ring twice, and Kobe Bryant once. But all the Jordans and Kobes of the world can never deny your place in the hearts of millions of basketball fans the world over.
All luck to you, wherever you go and whatever you do, Mailman.
Out beyond the ideas of right-doing or wrong-doing there is a field - I'll meet you there.
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About Me
- Nisheeth
- I is a place-holder to prevent perpetual infinite regress. I is a marker on the road that ends in I not being.
4 comments:
I didn't like him, I didn't like the way he played. When there was admiration for him it was always begrudging. I cheered when the Jazz lost. I cheered when Rodman had that snigger on his face at the end of (yet another) a playoff game that the Bulls won. But, like you said, the sense of loss, of losing the last of the great players from the 80s: that generation that reached their peak in the early 90s, and hence coincided with the "NBA-Game-Of-The-Week" that I caught on Prime Sports every Thursdsay morning, is tangible.
Boy! you were lucky to have watched the NBA in the early 90s. there are 3 reasons i'd have absolutely loved to have been 18 in '91.
1. that was when IIT was an amazing place with amazing people doing amazing things
2. getting to watch MJ take on Drexler and Sir Charles and Shaq coming into the league
3. being 21 in '94 and having a legitimate shot at interning in Bangalore and hitting it off with 18-year old Aishwarya Rai
Whoa no old-timer here man, I'm probably only a year or two older than you are, just started following the NBA really early. And you forgot to mention The Dream... Hakeem was absolutely at the top of his game those two years in '94 and '95 when Houston won the championship; he was quite a bit of fun to watch :)
As for number 3, I can totally empathize with that :)
Bah, I will hate Hakeem for eternity for denying Shaq in '95. Imagine if Shaq had won back then ...... the greatest ever debate would have been OVER by now.
who is this, anyway?
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