“I thought Karl Malone was a sellout!”: Shaquille O’Neal admits to making a mistake in judging the Jazz legend too soon

LA Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal reveals he wasn’t a fan of Karl Malone at first because he thought he was a sellout but realized he made a big mistake.

W it comes to the most physically dominant players to ever grace the NBA, both Karl Malone and Shaquille O’Neal are often brought up, and rightfully so. Both of them were simply unstoppable in their primes, beating their opponents with brute force and strength. In fact, the duo even shared the court as teammates during Malone’s tenure with the Lakers.

However, there was a time when things weren’t as rosy between the duo where they didn’t like each other at all.

In fact, Shaquille O’Neal even accused the Jazz legend of being a ‘sellout’ and admitted that he wasn’t the biggest fan of the forward. He goes on to say –

“Always accused of being a sellout. Like, what brother do you know rides a Harley-Davidson and wears jeans and boots? But he’s from the country in Louisiana.”

Something that we do almost every day is judging someone without getting to know that person or based on society’s opinion. Everyone does it, and that’s exactly what a young Shaq did when it came to Karl Malone. However, that all changed in the year 1996.

Also Read: “Karl Malone schooled Shaquille O’Neal in front of Kobe Bryant!”: When The Mailman put on a show against The Diesel and the Lakers in the 1997 Playoffs

Shaquille O’Neal admits judging Karl Malone too quickly.

In his book ‘Shaq talks back’, Shaquille O’Neal revealed he wasn’t a fan of Karl Malone as a young player in the league. The difference in opinion between the duo was due to their difference in upbringing. According to Big Diesel, he was a ‘City boy’ while Malone was a ‘country boy’. He goes on to say –

“Country brothers are different from city brothers. Country brothers wear jeans, and they farm, and they hunt, and they fish. City brothers don’t do that. City brothers ride around; we got to have the dopest clothes, we got to have the gold chains. They’re different. But that’s just how Karl grew up. He never changed. He liked driving that big eighteen-wheeler truck.”

It’s human nature to judge others. However, once we spent some time with that person, our opinion of that person changes. For Shaq, it all changed when he spent time with the Jazz star at the Team USA camp in 1996. The LA big man realized that Malone was completely different from what he initially perceived. He goes on to say –

“But when we played on the Olympic team together in Atlanta, I realized he worked hard, and he was a family man. His kids love him. I told him, “You know, I didn’t like you at first.” He said, “I didn’t like you. I thought you were arrogant, you didn’t care. But now I see that you’re a nice person, I see that you’re silly. So I admit I was a hypocrite with Karl, a guy who I thought was a sellout but turned out to be a real, good person, true to himself.”

Karl Malone played in the NBA for nearly two decades, and despite the fame, and money, he remained the same person, something which is not seen quite often.

In conclusion, a ton of respect to Malone for staying true to his roots, and credit to O’Neal for owning up to his mistake and turning over a new leaf.

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