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In that time — all of it alongside point guard Stockton, whose own statue is appropriately situated just a few feet from that of his pick-and-roll partner — some of Malone stayed true to self.

"Except for the money part of it — he made more money — he didn't change," Sloan said.

Or did he?

Malone is still moody, indecisive sometimes and dead-set in his ways in others. He is still unpredictable, often difficult to deal with, frequently charitable with time and money. He is still an enigma, quite confusing, truth be told, even to those who think they finally have figured him out.

But other indications are that he is nothing like what blew in with the draft of '85. His coach, after a moment of reflection, concedes as much.

"I don't mean to say he didn't change," Sloan said. "He got better every year, because he has the same work ethic. . . . He knew that hard work was gonna make him a great player, and that's how he did it.

"There were other players that had more ability, maybe, than he had. . . . And more skilled players, guys that could put the ball on the floor, dribble it better. But he did everything he could to get to that point that he made himself a great player."

Malone transformed his body from ordinary, by NBA standards, to ripped beyond belief.

He went from a 48.1 percent free-throw shooter as a rookie to a career 74.2 percent from the line.

He also developed from someone who slipped in the draft to No. 13 overall — bypassed by the team, Dallas, he thought would take him higher — to a two-time NBA MVP and 14-time All-Star Game selection who scored 36,928 regular-season points, second only to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 38,387.

"Karl Malone's lesson is that . . . you can work on your body, you can work on your shooting, you can work on your defense," said Sloan, the Jazz's head coach for 18 seasons after succeeding Layden. "You can do all those things and make yourself better.

"He's a guy that made himself a good free-throw shooter by just doing the right thing. He's a guy that made himself a better defender. Made himself a better passer. . . . He did something every year in his game to try to be a better player. He wasn't the same player when he left this game that he was when he came in."