Karl Malone: The Remarkable Story of One of Basketball's Greatest Power Forwards (Basketball Biography Books)

Fans adorned in navy blue and purple at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City watched as one of their past heroes officially became an immortal when his number was raised to the rafters. There, it would hang forever as a testament to the legend that the man was and will forever be. On March 23, 2006, the Utah Jazz retired the number 32 before they took on the Washington Wizards. The number 32 has become forever synonymous with consistent delivery and the hard work of the player known as “The Mailman” for fans of the Jazz. Karl Malone spent the first eighteen years of his professional NBA career with the Jazz, forming a historic partnership with his teammate and fellow Hall of Famer John Stockton before joining the Los Angeles Lakers for his final year.

Malone is considered by many to be one of the greatest power forwards of all time in the NBA. With 36,928 points throughout his nineteen professional seasons, he has the second highest amount of points ever among players. To add to his accomplishments, the Mailman was named MVP of the league twice, named to the All-NBA team eleven times, and he made the All-Star team fourteen times. If there is anything more to further cement his legacy in basketball, Malone was a part of the historic “Dream Team”, representing the United States national team during both the 1992 Barcelona and 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic games, which resulted in gold medals on both occasions.

At the same time, there are a few critics who argue that Malone is one of basketball’s biggest villains. Malone had a body made of muscle, weighing 256 pounds with less than 5% body fat, that he threw around - particularly his elbows. Several instances involving the Mailman elbowing rival players stirred up controversies during his playing career. Fines and suspensions came Malone’s way and caused blemishes on how fans viewed him.

The accomplishments of Malone’s basketball career are extraordinary, but so too are the circumstances that paved the way for them to be possible.