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| ALSO SEE Fouled Out: Karl's returnFouled Out: MJ, Wiz have a history | | | |
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 | Sunday, February 6 Malone tipped his weak All-Star hand years ago Special to ESPN.com | |||
He couldn't just take his $67 million contract and go out like a good soldier -- although that may not quite be the appropriate analogy for Karl Malone, considering he's packing heat and not afraid to advertise it. I think I'll write this column at a safe distance.
No, Malone had to end his career making a bunch of unfiltered noise about, well, what else, Karl Malone and the way he is treated with no respect and the way he doesn't like the way the NBA works these days and the way his route to the arena has changed since Salt Lake City began doing all that asinine road construction.
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| Karl Malone's not smart enough to fool Frank Hughes, who says the Mailman will deliver to Oakland next weekend. |
Anybody that thinks for a minute that Karl Malone is sitting out the All-Star game because he has a ouchie on his back and an owie on his teeny tiny finger is, well, is either a Jazz fan or an idiot -- and they are not always mutually exclusive, from what I have witnessed.
Listen, there are two reasons that Malone is saying he is not going to attend the All-Star Game, and that's why, according to a source, the league is perturbed and is pressuring him either to play in the game or to miss some of Utah's games before or after the break -- which likely would amount to a loss for Utah, because Greg Ostertag -- is it just me, or does that sound like the name of a washing machine? -- is not going to lead them to any victories.
Malone's first reason goes back two years. He probably thought people forgot about it, but I'm like an elephant. I'm fat. Don't you remember, when Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan were going at it one-on-one, and Malone came over to set a pick for Bryant, and Bryant waved him away to take on the entire Eastern defense by himself -- sort of like he does in every game with the Lakers now. Back then, Malone told me, in about a 10-minute interview on the topic: "I went to set a pick and the guy told me he's got it. Like I told coach (George) Karl, 'Hey, when younger guys telling me, Get out of the way, that's a game I don't need to be in.' "I was (miffed). People have a way of miffing you. (The game) is different. It kind of seems like that's the trend. That's what people are going to. You turn around as a veteran player and you say to yourself, 'I'm still feeling as good as I ever felt and I go set a pick; guy tells me to get out of the way, he got it.' Those are the kind of games I don't need to be in." Back then, Malone also told me he was so upset about the incident -- and the overall atmosphere of the weekend -- that he is beginning to question whether he should attend All-Star games any longer. "Oh, absolutely," Malone said. "It was a great honor to be voted. A great honor. But with the All-Star things going the way they are going, I'm not really cut out for the All-Star Game. I am cut out for playing in the league, but I'm not cut out for the All-Star Game. I really believe that. They are not games anymore, they are happenings. "It's amazing. Like I said, as a player, you say to yourself, I've been doing it for 13 years. Hopefully, barring injury, I'll be doing it for some more years. And you say, damn, other than your own team, you say, I believe my game is outdated. But then you get back to your regular team and you say, 'It's all right, at least for a little while longer.'" What more do you need to know? The reason he does not want to attend the game is right there in those statements. But Malone also thinks the world is against him, and he is angry that he was not voted into the starting lineup by the fans, who favored Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett over him. This is vintage Malone. According to a source close to the Jazz, back in the 1997-98 preseason, when John Stockton had knee surgery, Malone decided not to play the last exhibition game so that he could show Jazz fans what it was like not to have Stockton and Malone. In a hilarious twist, the Jazz went out and drilled the Suns that night.Malone did the same thing this preseason, electing to use this same "back injury" to sit out a game against the Sonics in Boise, Idaho. Jazz officials were wink-winking all over the place about his back problems.
And I was at the game the other night where Malone supposedly re-injured the back. He dove out of bounds after a loose ball and came up holding his right elbow -- which, for all you anatomically-challenged people, is not really near your back. Malone almost killed a photographer and referee Phil Robinson, but he went back in the game and was fine. The league knows this, which is why they have not yet named a replacement for Malone. You think if this was legitimate, the NBA would not have said immediately that Clifford Robinson or Antonio McDyess is going to take his spot, both to give those players heads-up and to get as much publicity as possible in those cities for those players. No, the league, sources say, have quietly been talking with Malone, trying to coerce him into playing. And if he does not, then he better not play for the Jazz for a few games after the break.Considering the Jazz are in the midst of a five-game losing streak right now, it's a pretty good bet that Malone is going to show up in Oakland.
Frank Hughes covers the NBA for the Tacoma (Wash.) News-Tribune. He is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.
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