Malone delivers lashing to Jazz for lack of effort

After playing 18 seasons with the them, Karl Malone can't help it.

He lives with them, dies with them and — especially this season — is driven crazy by them.

He's a Jazz fan.

"I do sympathize with the situation the Jazz are going through right now," Malone said Sunday, the same day he announced his retirement after 19 NBA seasons, "because you do have guys on this team that really want to win, and you have guys on this team that show up to get a check.

"That's the most disappointing thing."

Malone lashed out Sunday at those in the league who do not earn their pay, particularly those with the Jazz — who, heading into tonight's game at Phoenix, are just 17-33.

"I think that's the most disappointing thing now that you see: That you want the paycheck, you want a big paycheck, but you don't want to the pay the price," he said.

"When I watch the talent that they have here — they (Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, and owner Larry H. Miller) don't have to say it; I can say it, because you can't do nothing to me — they're just not giving the effort. There's a lot of money being paid to guys on this team, and they're not giving the effort."

And don't even think about blaming the coaches, Malone suggested.

"There's no shortage on the preparation that they put into this," he said. "It's a shortage of preparation on the players' part.

"You've two or three guys who want to win," Malone added. "But you have a lot of guys on this team right now that are collecting paychecks. And that's what this league is coming to.

"That is part of my decision on retiring — because I just didn't like the way it was going. You want to blame it on the coaches and the owners. It's not them."

Malone both defended and seemed to challenge Carlos Boozer, the 23-year-old now starting in The Mailman's old Utah power forward spot — and the same player who drew the wrath of Miller just last week.

"I'm a big fan of Carlos Boozer," he said. "He was that guy I said, 'This kid here — we ought to draft him.

"He's got all the tools," Malone added, "to be as good as he wants to be."