Karl Malone had a great NBA career, but off the court, the Jazz legend was involved in many scandals, including impregnating a 13 year old.
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The Jazz forward held second place in the all time scoring list for a long time before LeBron eventually surpassed him. He goes down as perhaps a top three forward ever, and he was the main player responsible for the Jazz reaching back to back championships in the 90s. If Jordan wasn’t around, there’s a good chance that Malone could have ended his career with two rings as well.
Regardless of what Malone did on the court, however, his image will always be clouded by the fact that he wasn’t a great person as a whole. Teen pregnancies and much more define his character, and sometimes, it’s crazy to even think about considering the way he was idolized as an NBA player.
The craziest story may be how he impregnated a 13 year old child when he was a 20 year old student in college at Louisiana Tech. He further chose not to parent the child as well.
Karl Malone impregnated Gloria Bell who gave birth to NFL player Demetrius Bell
Malone was a basketball star in college, and there he met and impregnated 13 year old Gloria Bell. Gloria would give birth to Demetrius Bell who would go on to be drafted by the Buffalo Bills.
Bell and her family could have pressed charges on Malone as having sex with a minor is illegal, but Gloria didn’t want to since according to her Malone was a neighborhood kid.
Malone has also impregnated Bonita Ford when they were both 17 who gave birth to fraternal twins Cheryl and Daryl Ford. Malone refused to accept that he was the father of all three of these kids, settling paternity suits where he was exempt from acknowledging he was the father.
He never made any attempts to enter his kids’ lives either, at least until much later. He started to build relationships with Cheryl and Daryl when they were both 17, but he made no effort whatsoever to contact Demetrius. However, that hasn’t affected Bell at all.
“I treat it as if my mother went to the sperm bank. I don’t hate him for [not being in my life]. It made me a better person.”
“I grew up around good people,” Bell said. “I never turned to a father figure. I was lucky. I didn’t need one. I’m happy. I don’t need anything else.”
It is shocking to think about how Malone completely changed the lives of these two women and their subsequent children, but that’s just the kind of person he was.
