“You rest when you die.”
Karl Malone probably can’t articulate his ethos any more succinctly than that. And that was just one of the Utah Jazz legend’s top-notch quotes from a 17-minute interview during a sleepy summer league game on NBA TV.
The Mailman joined the crew calling the Jazz-Magic game on Thursday night to share his thoughts — and boy, does he have a lot of them. Here’s a few of the best bits from the 54-year-old’s appearance with Kristen Ledlow and Stu Jackson:
Analytics • If Malone coached Kevin Durant, he’d tell him to post up more. That was one of the takeaways from a lengthy rant on what he sees as the shortcomings of analytics. He decried teams trying to force the issue and not running more half-court offense, while post moves such as the jab step have diminished. Gesturing to the game he was watching, Malone said: “Look, I’m never going to get invited back again, but tell me when they run a play.”
Modern player physiques • ”When somebody gonna lift some weights around this place?”
Finances • Malone’s two pieces of advice to players today are play hard, and “whatever you do, take care of your money. I don’t care if you make $30 million in your last year. Your last check is your last check. And be around you can trust without all these agendas and all that.”
AAU teams • In a slight digression about skills that translate to the NBA, Malone inserted a rant about youth basketball: ”I am so tired of all these AAU things going around. It’s just a money pit. It does not help the NBA. You can get more of finding a coach, having your child get one-on-one instruction instead of a lot of one-on-one ball-hogging and stuff like that.”
Declining pick and roll quality • When Ledlow attempted to shoehorn in a reference to an on-court pick-and-roll, the play that made Malone a star, he showed offense: “Did you guys just call that a pick and roll? It would’ve been been if they had put a body on somebody.”
LeBron James and the Lakers • Malone said he has incredible respect for James, 33, and believes he has the potential to set untouchable NBA records as long as he chooses to play the game. He described James’ legacy as “set.” While he expected James to stay in Cleveland, he didn’t judge him for leaving for Los Angeles — something Malone did himself in his later years. “My year with the Lakers, it was nothing but pure class. … I tell anybody that. The way they treated me and my family there, it was just amazing.”
Playing without rest • Malone famously played at least 80 games in 17 of his NBA seasons, but said he would commend commissioner Adam Silver for calling for more rest between games. Still, Malone himself isn’t pro-rest, as his “rest when you die” sentiment would indicate. He especially wouldn’t like to be taken out during a hot streak: ”I would’ve fought you to take me out of the game. There’s no way. I stay in the game when I’m hot.”
Fisticuffs • Jackson once held a role dishing out punishment to players for on-court incidents, which including suspending and fining then-Laker Malone for a game (against the Jazz) after the forward elbowed Steve Nash. It came up in the interview, but Malone said he wasn’t upset with Jackson. “When a man is doing his job, you take your medicine. On the flip side, Steve Nash should’ve taken his little ass on because I had the ball already. … I never would’ve gotten fined.”
Retirement • Malone talked about his plans to have a summer vacation in Alaska, as well as describing the various businesses he’s become involved with in the years since his retirement. He’s recently gotten into the cigar business in his native Louisiana, and his daughter is his partner. Their catchphrase? “Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.”
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