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Utah Jazz: Happy Birthday to ‘The Mailman’ Karl Malone

By Ryan Aston

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The greatest player in Utah Jazz franchise history is now 53 years old.

July is a crazy month in Utah Jazz land. With an excess number of players past and present celebrating birthdays this month, it almost feels as if Jazz Nation itself ages as a collective every time the month rolls around.

In the last few weeks alone, current Jazzmen Derrick Favors, Alec Burks and Dante Exum each had a birthday. So too did Jazz legend Antoine Carr, the big “Brown Bear” Mike Brown, John Crotty and Stephen Howard–who joined the team together as rookies in 1992–and Calbert Cheaney.

However, no Jazz birthday is bigger than the one that is celebrated each year on the 24th of July when “The Mailman” Karl Malone blows out the candles.

For all of the love that his Hall of Fame partner-in-crime John Stockton (deservedly) gets, it’s hard to deny that Malone is the greatest talent even to wear a Jazz jersey. With all due respect to Tim Duncan, who even Spurs coach Gregg Popovich says is a center, the Mailman was also the best power forward ever to play the game.

His accomplishments are too numerous to give you the litany here, but let’s take a stab at the CliffsNotes, shall we? Over the course of a playing career that spanned two decades Malone accrued the following list–

  • Second-leading scorer in NBA history behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
  • Only player in NBA history to be in the top 10 all-time in points, rebounds (7th) and steals (10th).
  • Two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (1997, 1999).
  • 14-time NBA All-Star selection (1988–1998, 2000–2002).
  • Two-time NBA All-Star Game MVP (1989, 1993).
  • 11-time All-NBA First Team selection (1989–1999).
  • Two-time All-NBA Second Team selection (1988, 2000).
  • All-NBA Third Team selection (2001).
  • Three-time All-Defensive First Team selection (1997–1999).
  • All-Defensive Second Team selection (1988).
  • NBA All-Rookie Team (1986).
  • Utah Jazz all-time leading scorer.
  • Selected to NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team.
  • Second-team All-American – NABC (1985).
  • Two-Time Olympic gold medalist (1992, 1996) and was initially selected participate in the 2004 Olympics before injuries forced him to withdraw.
  • Louisiana Tech Athletic Hall of Fame (1992).
  • Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (2010).
  • Bodyslammed wrestling legend Hulk Hogan.

Longtime Jazz fans will recall the summer of 1985, when after Malone was drafted, he touched down in Salt Lake City on his birthday and was welcomed with what he thought was a parade in his honor. Of course, it was actually the Days of ’47 Parade, commemorating the first entry of Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley.

Nevertheless, given all that he did for the state of Utah, the Jazz, the NBA and the game of basketball as a whole, the idea that the state would hold a parade in Malone’s honor on his birthday isn’t wholly unfathomable in hindsight.

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Happy 53rd birthday, Karl, and thanks for all that you did (and continue to do in retirement).

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