Jazz legend Karl Malone named among biggest 'almost-trades in NBA history'
By Matt John
With the NBA's long and illustrious, what-if scenarios have always been rampant, particularly with the Utah Jazz.
There are plenty of what-if scenarios concerning the Jazz. For example, what would have happened if Gordon Hayward had stayed? There's no telling what his legacy would be in Utah if he had played his career in Utah.
Another hypothetical has been brought back to life: what if the Utah Jazz had traded Karl Malone? Apparently, that was on the table back in 1994.
Karl Malone was almost traded to the Knicks
The New York Times Clifton Brown reported back in 1994 that the Jazz had discussed trading Malone to the Knicks. They also revealed the one hangup.
"Would Karl Malone enjoy playing for the Knicks? Yes, he would.
"Does he think it will happen? Hardly, unless the Knicks had a wild notion to trade Patrick Ewing.
"After hearing rumors last month that he might be traded to the Knicks, the Utah Jazz power forward met with Utah’s front office during training camp. And Malone was told that Utah would only trade him to New York for one player: Ewing."
A Malone for Ewing trade would have at best been a lateral trade for the Jazz. Both were all-time players, but are also considered two of the best NBA players of all-time to never win a championship.
HoopsHype named this among the NBA's biggest "almost-trades"
HoopsHype's Mark Deeks named the nixed Malone trade to the Knicks among the biggest "almost trades in NBA history
"The course of the NBA in the 1990s could have been substantially rewritten had he been traded to the New York Knicks in exchange for Charles Oakley and then-rookie Charlie Ward, as was reportedly discussed."
Deeks gave further details on why a trade never came to fruition.
"Other versions of the rumor – ones without Patrick Ewing entirely – state that the Jazz ownership vetoed the deal only after it was agreed upon by the two front offices at the time. Either way, Malone to the Knicks – where he would have been reunited with Scott Layden, then with New York, who had been an assistant with the Jazz for the first few years of Malone’s tenure there and who was widely credited with drafting him – was certainly heavily discussed."
Would a Karl Malone trade to the Knicks have changed the course of NBA history?
The Jazz have always been a competently run team, so it makes sense why they would not settle for anything less than Ewing in a potential Malone trade. Had they relented, it may have ended Stockton's time with the team a lot sooner.
Plus, Malone on those Knicks teams could have potentially given them enough talent to supplant those Jordan's bulls from the mid-to-late-90s. But we'll never know.
It also would have taken away the two most successful Jazz seasons in franchise history, and when it comes down to it, it would not have been enough.
In the end, it was better for the Jazz to get everything they could have from The Mailman.