Karl Malone is a legitimate Utah Jazz legend. He is the third-highest scorer in league history and his on-court conquests are legendary. But unfortunately, Malone could never win a championship. He even went to the Lakers superteam in 2003-04 to play alongside Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant but still couldn’t win.
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At the peak of his career, the only obstacle in Malone’s path to the championship was the unstoppable Michael Jordan. They two met twice in the NBA Finals but nothing Karl Malone did mattered in the end. All his scoring abilities and dominance in the post paled in comparison to MJ’s hunger to win.
The Bulls went on to win both those series and Karl Malone subsequently retired without any rings. But Malone still fondly remembers those contests. Especially MJ’s high-flying acrobatics.
Karl Malone wishes he could watch Michael Jordan play again
Despite their fierce rivalry and the two NBA finals against each other, Malone refused to feature in the Bulls’ now globally famous docuseries. The ‘Last Dance’ was solely focused on showing Chicago’s 1997-98 season and everything that led up to it. With Jordan being the center of the entire series, fans hoped to watch Karl Malone discuss their battles at length.
His absence from the Netflix series was certainly disappointing. However, Malone did speak about His Airness in another film called Michael Jordan’s Playground. The 1990 film showed Malone discussing how beautiful Jordan’s high-flying moves were long before he faced him in the Finals.
Malone: “You watch him, and he’ll do something, and you’d be like, ‘Hmm, I wish he could do that again.'”
Malone is judging the All-Star Dunk Contest
The NBA All-Star Weekend celebrations are already underway in Utah, and today is a big day. Saturday’s mean fans get to see players challenge each other in multiple events. But perhaps the one that is the most famous and brings in the most crowd is the Slam Dunk Contest. This year’s contest is a race for the NBA to reclaim the success of the Dunk contest after the recent failures.
So, they are going above and beyond to bring in the numbers. Their strategy also involved bringing in the Jazz legend Karl Malone as the Slam Dunk contest judge. Malone’s presence especially in Utah is a good publicity move by the NBA.
