Retro Jazz: Karl Malone SportsCentury

From 2005, here’s the ESPN SportsCentury episode featuring Karl Malone. You can read the accompanying story here.

It’s been nearly a decade since Karl Malone last played for the Jazz, amazingly. This clip looks back on his career shortly after his retirement following the 2003-04 season with the Lakers that I try to forget ever happened. As much as I don’t like the Lakers, I hated to see him get hurt in December of that season and never fully recover—even though he still basically carried that dysfunctional team until he finally couldn’t play in Game 5 of the Finals against the eventual-champion Pistons.

Re-watching this clip, I couldn’t help but feel lucky that I got the chance to follow Malone’s entire career. He gave Jazz fans more than our fair share of amazing moments and never took a game off. It’s absolutely amazing that he only missed 10 games in 18 years with the Jazz. Enjoy the clip and relive a remarkable career and life of a complicated man.