Karl Malone Biography

1963—

Professional basketball player, entrepreneur

Karl Malone made a 19-season career as professional basketball's premier power forward, scoring points on and off the court as an NBA superstar with the Utah Jazz in all but one season, which he played for the Los Angeles Lakers. Malone is the only player in the history of the National Basketball Association (NBA) to score 2,000 points or more in ten consecutive seasons. At 34 Malone, it seemed, had reached the pinnacle of his career when he won the 1996-97 MVP Award, averaging 27.6 points, 10.1 rebounds, and 4.5 assists. He was the oldest MVP in league history, having had a better and more complete year than Michael Jordan, according to some. Remarkably, two years later he won a second MVP after the 1998-99 season. And at age 38 he had a career high of 152 steals. He completed his career with the NBA's second highest scoring list with a career total of 36,928 points, less than 1,500 points behind basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

In childhood, Malone was an unlikely superstar. His path to Salt Lake City started in Summerfield, Louisiana, where he was born in 1963. The young Malone grew up scrawny and wild in another town called Mount Sinai. Only a regular "whupping" from his mom kept the little terrorist in line. "I didn't get enough whuppings," Malone laughingly said in Playboy. "If I had gotten more, I probably would have changed sooner than I did," he continued.

When he got his life turned around, Karl built himself up from a scrawny kid and town trouble-maker to become a standout high school basketball player. He led his high school team to three consecutive state titles. But poor grades nearly ruined his chances to play college ball, so at his mother's urging he attended Louisiana Tech and sat out his first year to improve his grades.