40-Year-Old Karl Malone Swallowed His Pride and Signed Up to Play With Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal For a Ring

Karl Malone ended his Hall of Fame career without winning a single championship. During his legendary stint with the Utah Jazz, he took his team to the Finals twice, in 1997 and 1998. But he met the most dominant force of the 90s, Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls, who crushed their hopes on both occasions. In his quest to add at least one ring to his resume, Malone swallowed his pride and committed to teaming up with Shaquille O’Neal and the late, great Kobe Bryant.

From 1985 to 2003, Malone spent 18 years playing for the Jazz. He even formed one of the most formidable duos in the history of the league with John Stockton, but they couldn’t get past the Bulls in the two Finals appearances that they made. While Stockton was ready to hang his boots in 2003, Malone was still looking for that ring and interestingly, the Lakers ended up becoming his only choice for that.

Jeff Pearlman, in his book Three-Ring Circus included an excerpt of Malone’s comment on joining the Lakers. During his introductory press conference, Malone said,

“I’m 40 years old and I’m honored someone wants me. I’m honored to get a chance to play with Shaq and Kobe. I understand that this is their team…”

His reaction made it clear that he wasn’t stoked about joining Kobe and Shaq, but unfortunately, it was the only option he had because the duo of Kobe and Shaq had just three-peated the championship and they were the most dominant team.

The following year, the Lakers managed to break into the NBA Finals yet again, but they ended up losing to the Detroit Pistons. Malone averaged five points, 7.3 rebounds, and 2.3 assists in 30.5 minutes of average playing time. After that loss, he retired in 2004. The hesitation he had in joining the Lakers stemmed from the animosity he had with Kobe and the disrespect that the Black Mamba had shown him over the years.

Kobe Bryant disrespected Karl Malone during the 1998 All-Star game

Kobe and Malone’s relationship became very problematic in 2004 when the latter made a sleazy comment on Vanessa Bryant. Prior to that, every ounce of animosity between them was a result of the competitive nature that they both had. The first hint of this occurred at the 1998 All-Star game when the world witnessed a young prodigy challenging the greatest player of all time and his idol, Michael Jordan.

However, Malone wasn’t one to get sidelines easily. During a play when Kobe was matched up against Jordan, Malone offered to set a screen, but he was waived off by Kobe. The veteran felt disrespected by the response and was quoted saying,

“When young guys tell me to get out of the way, that’s a game I don’t need to be in.”

As expected, Kobe had no care in the world for his hurt feelings and said that he found it funny that someone like him would be offended by an on-court decision.