Mailman's mailbox

What they're writing and saying about former Jazz star Karl Malone and his retirement announcement:

"Seems only fitting Reggie Miller and Karl Malone are going out together, though I don't see it getting that serious. What would happen when it became time to exchange rings?"

— Peter Vecsey, New York Post

"I think he's still part of the Jazz. I'm sorry — I can't imagine Karl Malone for the Lakers. He's like Emmitt Smith. . . . Nobody knows him and Cardinals; everybody knows him from the Cowboys."

— Former teammate and current Jazz forward

Andrei Kirilenko

"(Karl Malone and John Stockton) did it every single night — and if they had a bad game, they took it on the chin and got ready to go the next day. If they had a couple bad games, or our team was struggling, they didn't not show up for practice. They would be over there doing something to get themselves ready to play. . . . They'd be there competing like the devil to make it work. . . . Nobody can ever measure that. I was just was fortunate to have an opportunity to coach them."

— Jazz coach Jerry Sloan

"Some of the injuries Karl may have sustained that he played with would put players out on the injured list today."

— Former Jazz teammate Thurl Bailey

"The Adonis physique overshadows the fact Malone is every bit as tough mentally. When he became so exhausted during (last year's) Western Conference finals that he fell asleep in his home outside the bedroom — the first time that had ever happened in his career — he took it as a sign he was losing his mental edge."

— David Moore, Dallas Morning News

"He didn't owe us anything, as far as I'm concerned."

— Jerry Sloan, on Malone leaving Utah

to join the Los Angeles Lakers

"He had a brilliant career. Everybody has to call it quits some day."

— Lakers star Kobe Bryant,

speaking to the Los Angeles Times