By the time he retired in 2004, Karl Malone was worth millions of dollars. After 19 seasons in the NBA, he knew fame and fortune like very few people on earth ever get to experience.
Despite his rewarding career as an NBA superstar, however, Malone never lost sight of who he was — and it’s a part of his character that always appealed to Shaquille O’Neal.
In his book ‘Shaq Talks Back’, the Diesel got real on what he learned getting to know Malone and how the Jazz big man earned his respect after initially disliking him.
“Always accused of being a sellout. Like, what brother do you know rides a Harley-Davidson and wears jeans and boots? But he’s from the country in Louisiana. Country brothers are different from city brothers. Country brothers wear jeans, and they farm, and they hunt, and they fish. City brothers don’t do that. City brothers ride around; we got to have the dopest clothes, we got to have the gold chains. They’re different. But that’s just how Karl grew up. He never changed. He liked driving that big eighteen-wheeler truck.”
Shaq learned Malone was always true to himself no matter who was in the room with him, which wasn’t always the case in Shaq’s life, as he admits. When he came to Orlando, he wanted to make everyone else happy at that time of his life, which led to him being unhappy. He soon learned there was no real reason to dislike someone like Malone, who was always true to himself and what he stood for both in his private life and in the spotlight.
“Another reason I like Karl is because he lives for himself. When I was first living in Orlando, I tried to do things to make everybody else happy. You can’t live like that. You got to stick with what made you successful. I started living for myself.”
Malone was born in Summerfield, Louisiana. With a population of about 227 people, there wasn’t a whole lot going on there back then. Malone was the youngest of nine children and lived on a farm with his single mother, Shirley.
Somehow, he made it to the league and became of its biggest stars. On the court, he was a truly dominant force and had a great run with his co-star, John Stockton While they never won the title together, Malone did carve out an All-Time great career for himself. He was a 14x All-Star, 2x MVP, and 14x All-NBA player and averaged 25 points and 10.1 rebounds.
Off the court, while “The Mailman” was involved in some shady stuff behind the scenes, his teammates and competitors have always raved about his character, and it seems he changed very little from how he grew up. He even owns his own 230-acre cattle ranch today. For O’Neal, the fact that he never lost his roots after making it in the league is how every star should be after their breakout season.
In a world where money and power corrupt the strongest of people, it’s nice to see some proof that the “life” doesn’t always get to these guys’ heads.
