Utah Jazz: Mailman's Hall of Fame nomination is delivered

An order for The Mailman's delivery into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame has officially been placed.

The nomination paperwork required for Karl Malone to become a member of the Class of 2010 was recently submitted to the hoops haven, a source told the Deseret News. It arrived well ahead of the Nov. 30 deadline, setting in motion the wheels on the postal truck that will ship his basketball legacy to Springfield, Mass.

The official documents and endorsement, by the way, were postmarked in Utah — by the Jazz, Malone's team for 18 years — and not from his last delivery stop in Los Angeles.

Malone played with the Lakers for the 2003-04 season — continuing his championship quest a year after John Stockton retired from the Jazz in '03 — so this is the power forward's first year of eligibility to become a Hall of Famer after a required five-year retirement wait.

And Malone is considered a slam dunk — make that a powerful hammer dunk with his left hand placed behind his head — to be enshrined on his first ballot. His favorite point guard, Stockton, and his longtime coach, Jerry Sloan, received that elite, first-try Hall of Fame honor when they became enshrined with the Class of 2009 in September.

The Jazz might've had to buy extra postage to pay for the paperwork listing the incredibly durable Mailman's accomplishments during his 19-year career. For instance:

— The two-time NBA MVP averaged 25 points, 10.1 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.4 steals for nearly two decades.

— The rugged and resilient big man played in 1,476 games, including all 82 in 10 different seasons.

— Malone is also the league's second all-time-leading scorer (36,928 points), the sixth-highest rebounder (14,968 boards), the only player ever to be named first-team All-NBA 11 times, one of the 50 greats in history, a 14-time All-Star selection, a two-time gold-medal winner, and the list goes on ...

Jazz president Randy Rigby smiled while saying he considers Malone's Hall of Fame chances to be "very, very good" for 2010.

You could say his nomination was sent C.O.D. — Clinched On Delivery.

"I'd be shocked," Rigby said, "if we don't see Karl as a selection."

Another shocker would be if next year's enshrinement ceremony doesn't have a strong Jazz-Bulls flavor to it like the 2009 event, when Michael Jordan was inducted with 1997 and '98 NBA Finals foes Stockton and Sloan (along with David Robinson and C. Vivian Stringer).

That's because former Bulls great Scottie Pippen — Jordan's dangerous sidekick for six NBA championships — is another sure-bet inductee who's been nominated.

Basketball Hall of Fame historian Matt Zeysing isn't anticipating any surprise snubbings when it comes to Malone and Pippen.