G.O.A.T Squad Spokesman
Logic Is Absent Wherever Hate Is Present
So was Jesse Owens breh...but Usain Bolt would've smoked him.
Is Karl Malone underrated?
- Thread starter thatrapsfan
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Dame Dash's Motor Oil
Not From Harlem
Of course. But it goes both ways, without Jesse Owens, Bolt would probably be doing something else, because track & field wouldn't be that popular. Jesse Owens made the way for him just like Bill Russell made the way for Embiid
G.O.A.T Squad Spokesman
Logic Is Absent Wherever Hate Is Present
Agreed
thatrapsfan
Superstar
True. Players used to have much longer careers in the late 90s too. There were a bunch of old ass dudes who played a huge amount of games (Kevin Willis, Otis Thorpe, Parrish, Sam Mitchell, Terry Porter). Average of the NBA must have been much higher back then.
mastermind
Rest In Power Kobe
Karl Malone never came up big in the postseason. The Jazz should have been in the finals much earlier and he kept coming up short. He don't belong in this conversation.
G.O.A.T Squad Spokesman
Logic Is Absent Wherever Hate Is Present
He averaged 25 and 11 in the playoffs efficiently.
ManBearPig
half man half bearpig
no.
people wanna keep talking about his off court shyts.
damn near all these muthafukkin athletes is dikkheads.
people wanna keep talking about his off court shyts.
damn near all these muthafukkin athletes is dikkheads.
mastermind
Rest In Power Kobe
Four first-round exits with three as the higher seed in the prime of his career.
He not the boy, boy.
G.O.A.T Squad Spokesman
Logic Is Absent Wherever Hate Is Present
Can't argue results....my point is the man had no help besides Stockton who never averaged more than 17 ppg.Four first-round exits with three as the higher seed in the prime of his career.
He not the boy, boy.
Absolut da poet ®
Jubilado
I agree with this
He was always considered one of the greats until around the time LeBron came into existence
Over the last 20 years he seems to be fading from memory and that's probably because he's not on TV
Like Charles & Webber
He's not a GM like McHale was
And didn't win the championship..
He'll end up like all the other great players
Bernard King, Reggie Lewis, Rasheed Wallace
Who people will just forget were great
mastermind
Rest In Power Kobe
He had help. They were the higher seed in three of those series.
Also brehs free throw percentages dipped in the playoffs too.
Of course if he had 5 rings I'd say he's better than Magic. I'd say he's better than a lot of people. But he doesn't, and I'm not gonna ignore rings just like I won't use them as the end all be all. His team wasn't poor enough to have to wait 12 years for a Finals trip in a weak to below average West. He's not Top 10.
This is some of the dumbest "rings" talk I've seen. Malone played the large majority of his career with a stacked team:
1. HOF coach
2. HOF point guard, one of the all-time top-5 (some say top-2)
3. A top-5 shooting guard (Jeff Malone and then Jeff Hornacek)
4. HOF power forward, all-time top-2
5. For the first 5-6 years, a four-time DPOY and one-time All-Star center
And on top of that, he had some of the best team/coach stability in basketball history, with the same fukking teammates building chemistry together over the years.
But why didn't he win any rings? Was he getting stopped by some all time team in those 18 years? Hell no. Until the Chicago losses, it was mostly also-rans that beat them.
Let's start in 1986, when Malone was 22, Stockton was 23, Mark Eaton was 29 and reigning DPOY, and pretty decent players Ricky Green and Thurl Bailey were also on the team.
'86: Lost in 1st round to Mavs
'87: Lost in 1st round to Warriors
'88: Lost in WCSF to Lakers
'89: Lost in 1st round to Warriors
'90: Lost in 1st round to Suns.
Let me stop there for a second. In 1990 Karl Malone was nearly 27yo and in his prime, 1st-team All-NBA. Stockton was 27yo, in his prime, 2nd-team All-NBA. Mark Eaton was 33yo, coming off an All-star appearance and DPOY season the year before. Thurl Bailey was a decent 14 and 5 guy. Their core together had been together 5 years and had great chemistry. And they were just a 5-seed who lost in the 1st round to the Suns whose #1 option was Tom fukking Chambers.
Maybe you can say the Suns were a nice squad - Chambers, KJ, Hornacek, Majerle. But those aren't all-timers, those aren't guys who are ever put on the level of Stockton and Malone. If Stockton and Malone are really the best ever at their position, then how they teamed together in their prime losing in the 1st round to a squad that won't even make it out of the WC?
So they level up by adding Jeff Malone, a 2-time All-Star guard who had averaged 24ppg on 59% shooting the year before.
'91: Lost in WCSF to Blazers
'92: Lost in WCF to Blazers
'93: Lost in 1st round to Sonics
So in '94 they switch out Jeff Malone for a 30yo Jeff Hornacek (a borderline 20ppg scorer who had been an All Star in '92) and 34yo Chambers (last all-star game in '91 but still a double-digit scorer). Matching them with two 1st-team All-NBA guys in Malone and Stockton in the middle of their prime, during the expansion era when most teams had shytty depth and only 1 great player at the top. And still couldn't break through.
'94: Lost in WCF to Rockets
'95: Lost in 1st round to Rockets
'96: Lost in WCF to Sonics
'97: Lost in Finals to Bulls
'98: Lost in Finals to Bulls
'99: Lost in WCSF to Blazers
'00: Lost in WCSF to Blazers
'01: Lost in 1st round to Mavs
'02: Lost in 1st round to Kings
'03: Lost in 1st round to Kings
This ain't no, "ah, he just never got a squad." Malone HAD a squad, a better one than Hakeem had. And he not only didn't break through, he had a train ran on him by damn near every team in the Western Conference.
