karl you have ruin baskeball for me after you have left! you played with passion along with stockton and now these kids in the league are just spoil brats! come back to jazz please!!!!!!!!!!!!! and teach them the basic and defense. your best Karl!!

Carlos Boozer trained with Karl Malone his first year in Utah and he readily admitted that he couldn't even hold Karl's Jock strap! I remember that interview they had with Boozer. He said as soon as Karl took his shirt off and threw a big LOG on his shoulders and started running up the mountain side... he knew he was in trouble.
Boozer IS soft, NBA player ARE soft for the most part now. Rembmer Barkley, Malone, Rodman! Those guys really battles hard. Elbows and knees and HARD fouls!! The game was so much better back then. I still love NBA basketball, but it's articles like this that make me miss KARL and players like him so much!

I remember reading or hearing on ESPN that Karl did not know about Demetrius until the kid was fifteen, a little late to suddenly change things for the kid and just come into his life.

...an NBA championship to Utah. As good as Malone was, he never played well under pressure in the spotlight. Jordan thrived in those situations, that's why the Jazz went 0 for 2 in those back to back finals vs. the Bulls. Stockton was a lot tougher mentally than Malone was. Stock could hit big shots in the clutch. If Malone had some of the moxey in him that Stockton had, they would have won it all a few times, no doubt in my mind.

mchale played with this little basketball player from indiana named larry bird. if malone played with bird he would've never not won a championship. criticize malone for not winning a championship, or criticize lhm for not surrounding him with enough talent. the bulls who had jordan, were a deeper more talented team than the jazz. it's easy for a wimp to criticize behind the security of the internet, or like the wimp who only says anything when he's holding his mommys hand. if you can't not be a pathetic wimp, don't offer your opinions as if anyone cared, because no one does, i'd tell you to go moan to your friends, but negative wimps don't have friends.

IMHO
Karl is #3 best player the Jazz ever had.

Stockton = #1 Huge heart, huge basketball IQ, long tenure and 2 finals appearanaces. And off the chart skills

Dantley a close #2 since you can't directly compare him with Stock. Given the cast of characters he played with and the NBA of his day, Dantley is at worst #2

Karl is a great, great, great, 1st ballot Hall of Famer. Many members of the Hall of Fame couldn't even spell Hall of Fame and it doesn't detract a thing from their accomplishments. Karl may have gagged in the finals. . ..maybe not. It is unknowable. With or without the gag he's #3.. And all 3 are (or should be) top 50 of the century players. Karl talks openly about Dantley teaching him about how to play inside... Wasn't Sloan or Layden.

Karl vs Kevin McHale?
interesting comparison..Karl is one of the best athletes to ever play the game..if he ever would stand side by side with Booze, you would see how big Karl really is. and Karl could run and jump with anyone in his younger days. And he was the best fast break finisher ever to play the game. Karl also greatly improved his free throw shooting, his posting and his passing.

McHale, by comparison, was the best low post player to play the game, excelled in Boston's half court offense, and mixed with, skill wise and personality wise with Larry Bird. McHale was really a center in Boston's offense and played defense against the opposing teams 3s, 4s, and 5s.

Bottom line..Karl, who spoke out for Larry Bird, when many of the NBA players were calling him overrated, fit much better in Utah's offense, than McHale ever would have. However, Karl's young legs and hustle could have led Boston to more titles.

1999 was the year the Jazz should and could have won it all. The strike and Shandon Anderson leaving messed it up for the Jazz