National Basketball Association

Karl Malone is truly a winner

Published Aug. 12, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

There are those who believe Karl Malone should stand alone when he gets inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

I agree ... but not for the same reason.

The NBA's second all-time leading scorer put the power in the power forward position in a brilliant 19-year career. Nobody did it better. Perhaps no one ever will.

Few dispute Malone's prowess on the court. It's in his trophy case where his detractors have issues.

Some believe the former Utah Jazz standout should do a solo act Friday because he's never been at his best in "team" surroundings. They point to a single digit to demonstrate this: zero championships in 18 seasons with the Jazz and one with the Lakers.

Seriously, the fact that Malone has the same number of rings as Elgin Baylor and Patrick Ewing justifies in some minds that he doesn't belong in the same conversation as, say, Julius Erving and Elvin Hayes, both one-time NBA champions.

Because Malone's Jazz clubs in 1997 and '98 and Lakers team in 2004 came up a total of seven games shy of accumulating three titles — both Utah defeats coming at the hands of Michael Jordan's Bulls dynasty — the Louisiana native isn't considered a winner.

How then do you explain the two Western Conference championships?

His remarkable 98 playoff wins?

His .643 regular-season winning percentage?

Or even his 1992 gold medal, when he was the ultimate Dream Team teammate, tying Ewing for the team lead in rebounds while connecting on 64.5 percent of his shots?

Truth be told, Malone was a greater winner than most guys with multiple championships. He did the seemingly impossible — joining with John Stockton to put little ol' Salt Lake City on the NBA map.

Ah, John Stockton. Without Stockton, surely Malone would not have achieved most of his accomplishments. Some might argue with the word "most," but like any dynamic duo, the sum is always much greater than either of its parts.

So let's not forget Malone's impact on Stockton's numbers.

How is it a guy who shot just a respectable 47.1 percent his rookie season all of a sudden blossom into one of the game's most accurate shooters — 51.5 percent over his career?

That's easy. Stockton was actually guarded during the 1984-85 season. But once Malone became firmly implanted on the low block the following season, no team was foolish enough to commit a defender full-time to the tiny guard on the perimeter when a second (and often more) was required to deal with the 250-pound brute inside.

Championships aside, Malone was one of the NBA's ultimate winners. Nobody worked harder on the court to assure the success both of his teammates and his teams.

And he did it with class.

Nobody this side of Shaquille O'Neal took as much physical abuse on the court in the Malone era. He got sent to the free throw line an amazing 13,188 times, the most in NBA history.

And how did Malone respond? Unselfishly, of course.

He not only made opponents pay for the constant hacking — he was a career 74.2 percent foul shooter. He also retaliated with only 3.1 fouls per game, almost never allowing his rival to balance the scale at the line.

And in 1,476 career games, Malone was rarely ejected. When he knocked out an opponent, it was through the hoop, not onto the court.

When Karl Malone wakes up Saturday morning, he will do so as a Hall of Famer. It's a well-deserved honor.

But let's not see it as a consolation of any sort for a guy who no doubt would trade in the plaque for a ring.

You see, Malone remains much more than just a Hall of Famer. He'll still be the greatest power forward of all time, just as he's been for more than two decades.

There's no ceremony for that. No hardware. No rings. Just a lot of great memories and happy teammates.