So it's only fitting, some of those friends said Friday, that he would come to where he feels most at home - in Utah, at the Delta Center - to make that separation from the NBA permanent.

Malone will return to the site of his greatest triumphs (and yes, his most bitter disappointments) Sunday, the Jazz said, to announce he is abandoning his coy courtship of the Spurs, the Lakers, the Heat, and giving up all plans to return to professional basketball.

"I'm glad it's [happening] here," said Jerry Sloan, Malone's head coach for 15 of his 18 seasons with the Jazz. "I would hate for him to close the book in L.A., or somewhere else. He will always be remembered as a Utah Jazz player."

Yes, but far more than that. A two-time MVP, 11-time All-Star, perhaps the greatest power forward ever and, with the lone exception of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the most prolific scorer in basketball history, Malone came to personify the small-market franchise. Might have saved it, too.

"This franchise has been the luckiest franchise in the world, when you look at what they had in those two players," Sloan said of one and

his equally one-of-a-kind running mate, John Stockton.

That duo lifted the Jazz into the postseason every year of their careers, and helped turn Larry Miller's franchise-saving investment into a Utah fixture. Yet just getting to the playoffs was never enough, especially once the Jazz twice reached the NBA Finals and fell short. So Malone came to be defined lately by his quest for a championship that eluded him in Utah.

He went to Los Angeles, but a knee injury and a divided Laker locker room denied him a title he believed was within reach. When the knee required surgery in late June, he told friends his career was over. But he quickly changed his mind, or at least withdrew from the finality of the decision, and allowed his name to be linked to potential championship contenders. He even met with Spurs coach Gregg Popovich last week to listen to one final pitch for a comeback.

He wasn't convinced. "I think part of him wants to come back," said Matt Harpring, who spoke with his former teammate a couple of months ago, "but he knows he has to have the fire and spark to play to his level. And I don't think he got it."

"Right now, he's still got a gun over his shoulder," Sloan said of his fellow outdoorsman. "He needs to fire that a few times and get that out of his system a little bit."

Shoot at game, in other words, not in games.

"I'm just happy that he's made a decision that he's happy with," said Sloan, who Malone consulted with while making the decision. "He's made a good decision all the way around, in my opinion."

By all accounts, Malone's knee is completely healthy again, and his legendary commitment to inhumane weight-room workouts is as strong as ever. But the more time that passed, the more Malone learned how many more ways there were to occupy him.

Lumber rancher, big- and small-game hunter, father and husband - "There's a lot more to Karl Malone than basketball," Sloan said. "He doesn't need a ring. He wants it, but he doesn't need it. . . . You can say, 'I've got a championship ring,' but there are a lot of guys who never played as hard as he did who have rings. I don't think that makes them champions any more than him."

Malone was too hurt or too sick to pull on his Jazz uniform just six times in 18 seasons. "Wow, [the Jazz] must have had a great trainer," joked Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders. "That was Karl's greatness, his commitment to hard work. Even in the offseason, his work regime was phenomenal."

It paid off on the floor. Malone takes 36,928 points with him into retirement, just 1,459 fewer than Abdul-Jabbar. He had 14,601 rebounds, 5,085 assists, 9,622 successful free throws.

He was tested every night, too. "It's just unthinkable. People came at [Malone and Stockton] every day. Every time they stepped on the court, somebody was beiing measured by playing against John Stockton, playing against Karl Malone," Sloan said. "How do you go out there and face up to that? They didn't want to be embarrassed. If they had a bad game, they took it on the chin and got ready to go the next day."

That hard work will put Malone's No. 32 in the Delta Center rafters, his likeness on a statue in the arena plaza, and his plaque in the Hall of Fame. No championship? No worries.

"He was incredible. That's his legacy," Sloan said. "There's not a handful of guys that played as hard as he did for as long as he did. . . .

"Every. Single. Day."

pmiller@sltrib.com