The man known around the Association as AK47 just got popped with an extremely embarrassing episode recently.
During a game between the Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets, the nightcap of TNT’s doubleheader, Andrei Kirilenko had the ballgame in his hands but he let it slipped through his soft hands. Here’s a recap of what happened:
Devin Harris buried a 3-point shot with 1.2 seconds left to cut the Nuggets’ lead to two at 103-101. On the in-bounds play, Denver’s Kenyon Martin got cute with the ball and he flubbed it right into the fingertips of Kirilenko. All AK47 needed to do was gather Martin’s misplayed ball and score a layup to send the game into overtime. But somehow Kirilenko bobbled the ball and couldn’t even get a decent shot attempt. It looked like he never got a clean hold of the ball and – for lack of a better term – simply choked. Watch and judge for yourself:
The last time Kirilenko suffered this kind of embarrassment was in 2007 when Baron Davis, back when he can still jump, dropped a nasty dunk in AK47′s face during a playoff game in Oakland.
Karl Malone doesn’t like to sugarcoat anything. He’s a straight shooter and he’ll tell it like it is. So, when given an opportunity to talk about the sudden resignation of Jerry Sloan as coach of the Utah Jazz, the Jazz’s all-time leading scorer got some things off his chest and offered his support to his former coach.
“I just want to throw some things out there. I know Coach Sloan. We can call it resigning, quitting, whatever you want to call it. The man I know never quit anything. And Phil Johnson [Sloan's assistant] never quit anything. So it had to be a lot worse than what anybody is saying,” Malone said on NBATV’s Game Time on Friday.
“I know this guy. This guy wouldn’t quit anything,” Malone added. “He’s challenged me in the huddle before. He said, ‘I’ll fight you as long as I could see you.’ That’s Coach Sloan, and that’s his attitude.”
Malone is a loyal guy to the core, so it is no surprise that he’s got his longtime mentor’s back. Malone and Sloan may have had their differences over the years, but it never went so far that it destroyed their friendship and trust in one another. “It don’t matter if we had Coach John Wooden; the players as a whole have to buy into the system,” Malone said. “That’s the whole issue here.”
The issue Malone is referring to is the reported rift between Sloan and All-Star guard Deron Williams. The situation boiled over earlier in the week when Sloan and Williams were involved in a heated confrontation which may (or not) have led to Sloan’s resignation.
Malone says he’d like to carry on Sloan’s tradition, but he has a young son who is playing football and he wants to spend time with him. However, if given an opportunity to become a head coach some day, Malone admitted it’s a challenge he’d love to test. “That’s definitely something I want to do. It’s something I feel strongly about and I’ll have some opportunities, I’m sure. I owe that to Coach Sloan because of what he taught me,” said Malone, who promises he won’t be bringing donuts and roses to practice.
Karl Malone announced his retirement from the NBA on Feb. 13, 2005 in Salt Lake City, a place he called home for 18 seasons. (REUTERS)
When the 1992 Dream Team took time off to visit golf courses in Barcelona, almost everyone on the team was itching to bust out their golf clubs out and take their cuts. Karl Malone saw the well-manicured greens, uninviting bunkers and deep roughs, and called it a “waste of pasture.”
Karl Malone was a different breed of athlete. For one, he’s a stand-up guy whose loyalty is admirable. He prefers Harleys over Ducatis; monster trucks over Escalades; 18-wheelers over Rolls Royces. “Growing up, I was always fascinated by equipment,” he said.
He also enjoys riding horses and, when he’s not sporting a baseball cap, he dons a cowboy hat. He wears T-shirts and jeans to work, and probably doesn’t own a tuxedo. The last time he got dressed up for an occasion was at the 1985 NBA Draft in New York. Remember that fashion debacle? After David Stern called Malone’s name with the 13th overall selection, the Louisiana Tech stud walked to the stage wearing white pants, white shirt, a blue coat and tie that looked like it was purchased at Toys R Us.
Somewhere on the red carpet, Joan and Melissa Rivers are having a heart attack after seeing Malone’s fashion faux pas. He just looked real uncomfortable and probably couldn’t wait to rip that tie off his neck, cut off his sleeves and pop a cold one in the green room. You know it crossed his mind.
Malone may have been a pro basketball player, but he’s more of a Big Country than City Slicker. He loves the great outdoors. He owns a cabin in Kenai, Alaska, where he goes fishing and hunting with family and friends. “I just like to kick back and just enjoy life,” Malone said. “We grew up hunting and fishing in Louisiana. When I come here [Alaska], it’s not just about fishing. It’s about relaxing and getting your mind right. When I come here, I forget who I am. We don’t talk about sports.”
If Malone were cast in a Hollywood western movie, he would fit in like a glove. Wait a minute! I believe we have evidence of Malone, the actor, in a western flick. He played Elijah Abel in the 1994 movie “Rockwell.” See photo below:
Can you guess the guy on the right? If you said "Karl Malone" you just earned your spurs.
Born and raised in Summerfield, La., Karl Anthony Malone knew only one way to get things – through hard work. He earned every thing he got in life, which sums up his incredible basketball career that is about to be permanently highlighted in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.
The man hardly took shortcuts, possessing a work ethic that is second to none. He is self-man professional athlete who accomplished basically everything needed to be accomplished in the game of basketball, except for winning a championship. But even though he never won an NBA title, he never allowed that void in his basketball life to define him.
But title or no title, the man known as The Mailman delivered one powerful NBA career.
At 6 feet 9 and 260 pounds, Malone was the ideal power forward; a pioneer of the position. If you look up “power forward” in the NBA dictionary, it will say SEE KARL MALONE.
Malone was a physical marvel. Built like a superhero and blessed with a motor that always pushed forward, he demoralized opponents with his brute strength and relentless nature. In 18 years with the Utah Jazz, he led the franchise to two NBA Finals appearances and won two regular-season MVP awards (1997 and 1999). In 1,476 games, he scored 36,928 points – second only to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Malone was also dependable. From 1985 to 2003, he missed only 10 games. He was a real basketball iron man.
But Malone had plenty of help in Utah.
John Stockton, the NBA’s all-time leader in assists and steals, made sure The Mailman always delivered on game days. The two formed one of the best 1-2 combos in league history.
Stockton to Malone!
Whenever legendary Jazz play-by-play announcer “Hot Rod” Hundley said those words it was like sweet music to Jazz fans and basketball fanatics in the entire state of Utah. Without Stockton and Malone, there would be no Delta Center in Salt Lake City (or Energy Solutions Arena).
Stockton and Malone played 1,412 games together and are immortalized outside of Energy Solutions Arena with bronze statues and an intersection in Salt Lake bears their names.
“We’re sorta like Siamese twins,” Malone said of his good friend John. “I look at him and I was warriors, and we go out and fight battles. There’s no doubt in my mind what he’s thinking and I don’t think there’s any doubt on his mind what I’m thinking when we go on that court, and that’s to win.
“When we’re gone from the game of basketball, when you mention one you gotta mention the other one. If we happen to go to the Hall of Fame one day they’ll probably get us both there together.”
Well, almost.
Stockton was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009, along with Jazz coach Jerry Sloan. “We’ve won and lost a lot of games together. We’ve been through a lot together,” Stockton said of his good friend Karl.
Malone left Utah in 2003 to join Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and Gary Payton in Los Angeles, hoping for a Hollywood ending to his storied basketball career. The Lakers reached the 2004 NBA Finals, but lost in five games to the Detroit Pistons. Malone hobbled off the court one final time and never looked back.
That’s not the way a heroic cowboy would ride off to the sunset.
He could have played another season with the Lakers, but decided to retire. Now, depending on who you talk to, there are varying reports on why Malone retired. Here’s one explanation: Vanessa Bryant, Kobe’s Bryant’s wife, had a reported run-in with Malone. In a story published in the L.A. Times in 2004, Vanessa jokingly asked Malone “Hey, cowboy, what are you hunting?” in reference to Malone’s hat and boots. Malone reportedly responded with, “I’m hunting for little Mexican girls.” That last comment infuriated Vanessa, and she told Kobe about it. Kobe confronted Malone about the incident and it caused a major rift between the two.
Whether or not Kobe had something to do with Malone not returning to the Lakers remains unproven. The bottom line is Malone went to L.A. to give it one more shot at winning that elusive title, but fell short.
However, on Aug. 13, 2010, Malone will finally get his title. It will say “Karl Malone, basketball Hall-of-Famer.”
All championship teams have great role players – guys who play their position, make all the hustle plays and knock down shots when called upon.
Magic Johnson’s Laker teams had Michael Cooper. Larry Bird’s Celtic teams had Danny Ainge. Robert Horry, who was instrumental in helping Hakeem Olajuwon’s Rockets, Shaq and Kobe’s Lakers and Tim Duncan’s Spurs win titles, is probably the NBA’s ultimate role player.
Since Horry retired, his former teammate, Derek Fisher, has now become the best role player in the NBA.
Fisher showed his value during a hotly contested Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals against his former team Saturday night when he knocked down a key 3-point shot with 28 seconds left that put the Lakers ahead, 109-108, a lead L.A. never relinquished. The Lakers won, 111-110, and now have a commanding 3-0 lead in their best-of-series against the Jazz.
“He’s done that before. He’s one of those guys who is a tough guy. He played for us and was a great competitor,” Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said of Fisher, who played for the Jazz in 2007, but asked to be released so that his ailing daughter could get better treatment and L.A. was one of the places she could receive better care.
“A big loss for our team when he left. But that’s life,” Sloan added. “He gave us toughness, and he made a lot of shots like that for us. He was a wonderful guy to coach, a real professional.”
Fisher was 3-for-7 from 3-point range in Game 3 and finished with 20 points. And even though Deron Williams had 28 points, Fisher made him earn every point and even frustrated the Jazz All-Star point guard at times. And Fisher’s knowledge of Utah’s sets on offense has been a very valuable scouting tool for the Lakers’ coaching staff.
“Fish just being Fish. What more can you say. This is something he’s done his career,” Kobe Bryant said of his 35-year-old backcourt partner, now in his 11th season with the Lakers. “Even with things that don’t show up on the stat sheet: his recognition, his ball movement, his spacing, and obviously knocking down big shot after big shot. That’s something that he does.”
Laker guard Derek Fisher (right) has done a decent job defensively on Utah's Deron Williams. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)
The Lakers attempted 29 3-point shots in Game 3, and Sloan said that was by design to try to combat the Lakers’ size advantage. Unfortunately for Sloan and the Jazz, the Lakers converted 13 of them.
“To try to help out our big people to keep the ball out of the middle, we gave them a lot of 3-point shots. We felt that gave us a chance to win the ballgame, and that probably got us,” said Sloan.
Fisher, Bryant and Ron Artest were a combined 10-for-21 from behind the arc.
Phil Jackson says he never worries about Fisher because the Lakers coach is confident the 14-year veteran will always make the right decision. That trust is the main reason why Jackson makes sure the dependable Fisher is on the court during crunch time, affording the Lakers two fourth-quarter closers – a luxury most playoffs teams don’t have.
Fisher has delivered timely shots during his outstanding Laker career, a career that includes four NBA championships and six trips to The Finals. No other role player on a current NBA roster has four championship rings.
In 2001, Fisher came back from a stress fracture on his right foot to help the Lakers sweep through the playoffs and finish 15-1. Fisher established an NBA postseason record for most 3-pointers made in a four-game series with 15 in the Western Conference semifinals against San Antonio.
Then, in 2004, Fisher killed the Spurs again when he made one of the most memorable buzzer-beaters in playoff history when he sank a game-winning shot in 0.4 seconds.
The Fisher Fling was the defining moment of his career until the 2009 NBA Finals when he made two clutch 3-point shots against the Magic in Game 4. With his team down by three, Fisher drained a 3-pointer at the end of regulation to send the game into overtime. He then buried the dagger 3-pointer late in OT to seal the deal.
Defensively, Father Time has taken away Fisher’s foot speed and he’s never going to be mistaken for being a shutdown defender. However, he is still a scrappy defender and never backs down from a challenge. He always finds ways to contribute, taking charges, helping out on close-outs, sacrificing his body by bullying his way through screens and diving for loose balls. Those are the little things that lead to big parades in June.
“He played a great game,” Jackson said of Fisher’s Game 3 performance. “He hit some shots, made some defensive plays I thought were good out there on the floor. Just his tenacity is a factor for us.”
Fisher is one of the most physically and mentally tough players in the league, and his calming influence in the locker room should never be underestimated. He’s probably the only player inside the Laker locker room who has earned Kobe’s trust. Because of Fisher’s reputation for being a stand-up guy, he can act as a buffer between Bryant and Jackson.
Since Fisher returned to L.A. in 2007, it is no coincidence the Lakers have been to the NBA Finals two years in a row and are about to reach their third consecutive Western Conference finals.
His true value can’t be measure by statistics, and he’s the glue that holds the Lakers together.
Utah Jazz forward Carlos Boozer pretty much had his way against the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the 2010 playoffs. He averaged 22 points and 13 rebounds in the series and beat up on Denver big men Nene, Kenyon Martin and Chris Andersen.
Now, Boozer is on the other side of the beatings. In two games against the big, bad L.A. Lakers, Boozer’s averages are down to 19 points and 12 rebounds; decent numbers but not good enough to get the Jazz over the hump – three tall humps to be specific.
The Lakers’ frontline of 7-foot center Andrew Bynum, 7-foot forward Pau Gasol and 6-10 forward Lamar Odom have become the story of the conference semifinals. All three are highly skilled big men with a ton of length, something Boozer and the Jazz are lacking.
Boozer, who is listed at 6-9 but is probably closer to 6-8, has struggled to find easy shots against the Lakers, and the same goes for 6-7 Paul Millsap, 6-5 Wesley Matthews and 6-6 C.J. Miles. Millsap’s numbers are actually up from the first round (21 points and 10 rebounds), but his shooting percentage is way down. After making 61% of his field goals against Denver, the Utah sixth man is shooting 51% against L.A.
Despite being down 2-0 and having been dominated 101-78 on the boards in the series, Boozer remains confident his team will bounce back and make this a series.
“We’re not going to be frustrated. We’re not going to be demoralized. We’re not going to back down. We’re not going to give up,” said a determined Boozer, who will be a free agent this summer.
“We’re going to keep fighting, we’re going to keep attacking and stay aggressive. Some of them calls could have been fouls, but weren’t. We’ll keep attacking them and hopefully we can get some more calls in Salt Lake City.”
Boozer believes the addition of Andrei Kirilenko will give the Jazz a boost in this series on both ends of the court.
“Andrei will help out a lot,” Boozer said of Kirilenko, who has been out since the playoffs began. “His length, his size, his skill set, his play-making ability. Obviously his defense and he can give Kobe a different look. It’ll be good to mix it up with him. I don’t expect for him to play a lot, but the time he’s on he can make a difference.”
Boozer said he and his teammates can’t worry about the Lakers’ shot-blockers (L.A. had 13 blocked shots in Game 2) and must continue to stay aggressive around the basket.
“We can’t worry about anything else, we just have to keep playing,” Boozer said. “If we have a lane, we’re going to drive and if we have a jump shot we’ll shoot it with confidence. They’re good. They’re big, they’re long, they play good defense. But we can’t shy away from them. We have to go right at them.”
The Utah Jazz has no shot against the L.A. Lakers.
What? Say that again.
The Utah Jazz has no shot against the L.A. Lakers.
The reality of the Utah-L.A. series is this, the Lakers are very familiar with the Jazz and they will use the same formula that has worked for them the past two seasons: use their superior size, strength and length to control the paint.
“We’ll be ready,” Bryant said of the matchup in the Western Conference semifinals. “No scouting report necessary, for either team. We know their offense inside out and they know our offense inside out, as well as the defense. We play each other so many times, including preseason, we’re just extremely, extremely familiar with each other.”
“Everybody knows we have trouble with the Lakers,” said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, whose team has been eliminated from the postseason by the Lakers the past two years.
“They’re big and long and we’re not big and long. When it’s all said and done, you come and play and do the best you can,” Sloan added. “Our guys will lay it out there and compete, and that’s all you can ask them to do.”
Utah lost the season series 3-1, and one of the Laker victories came without Bryant.
In the four meetings, the Lakers held the Jazz to 88 points per game, 43% shooting from the field (27% from 3-point range) and L.A. enjoyed a +4 rebounding edge. Against the rest of the league, Utah averaged 104 points per game and nearly 50% shooting.
Carlos Boozer (6-9), Kyrylo Fesenko (7-1), Paul Millsap (6-8) and Wesley Matthews (6-5) will be at a major disadvantage against the Lakers’ frontline of Andrew Bynum (7-0), Pau Gasol (7-1), Lamar Odom (6-10) and Ron Artest (6-7). Fesenko is the only Jazz player who can match up height-wise vs. the Lakers, but the rookie center has just six playoff games under his belt.
Boozer, who dominated the Nuggets’ big men in the first round, enjoyed a season in which he averaged 19 points and 11 rebounds. But against the Lakers, Boozer’s numbers are down (16 points and nine rebounds). Boozer gives up almost three inches against Bynum and Gasol, which limits his post-ups.
Last year, the Lakers bounced the Jazz in five games in the opening round and the year before that the Lakers took them out in seven games in the conference semifinals.
“Third time is a charm, right?” said Jazz guard Deron Williams, who is a game time decision for Game 1 because of a sore elbow. “It’ll be a tough series. They’re always tough. They’re the defending champs until somebody defeats them. Hopefully we can be a little tougher with them, be a little more physical. They are usually a team that tries to come out and blow you out in one quarter and they’ve done that to us on several occasions. We’ll just have to be ready to go.”
So, unless the Jazz sprout some more height the next few days, it will be extremely difficult for them to combat the size and length of the Lakers. A sweep is not out of the possibility. More likely, the Jazz might be able to squeeze one win out of this series but that’s about it. Expect the Lakers to be in the conference finals.
Carmelo Anthony and the Nuggets are down 3-1 to the Jazz in their best-of-seven first-round series. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)
The Denver Nuggets, a team that started the season with hopes of challenging the L.A. Lakers in the Western Conference and winning a NBA title, are on the brink of elimination in the first round.
Denver is down 3-1 to the Utah Jazz and the pressure of getting bounced early in the playoffs has the Nuggets, including their best player, extremely frustrated and edgy.
Carmelo Anthony admitted after the loss in Game 4 that his teammates need to raise their level of play or they’re all making reservations in Cancun or Cabo next week.
“I’m trying to do everything I can in my power to beat the Jazz. But, at the end of the day, I need some help,” said Anthony, who scored a game-high 39 points in Denver’s 117-106 loss in Game 4, but the rest of his team managed just 67 points.
“I’m not sitting here pointing fingers, but as a unit we gotta do this together. I can’t do it by myself,” he continued. “I’m frustrated at the level of play. The energy, the intensity is not there. We start off the game good, then for some reason we’re down 10 or 11 points. You know, [Carlos] Boozer down there is pushing our big men out of the way.”
Without naming names, Anthony’s recent criticism were directed at his big men: Nene, Kenyon Martin and Chris Andersen. All three have been thoroughly outplayed by the Jazz big men of Carlos Boozer, Paul Millsap and Kyrylo Fesenko.
“Fesenko … Fesenko! I mean don’t get me wrong he’s playing extremely well. He’s playing with a lot of confidence. But … Fesenko!” Anthony said about Utah’s seldom-used second-year center who was forced into action when Mehmet Okur went down with a season-ending Achilles’ tear.
Boozer, Millsap and Fesenko are averaging 43 points and 23 rebounds for the series, while Nene, Martin and Andersen are averaging 24 points and 21 rebounds.
“They got everything they wanted out there. You know, transition buckets, paint points,” Anthony said of the Jazz, who have won three games in a row after dropping the first game in the series.
“[Wesley] Matthews gave them a huge lift, taking advantage of us trying to keep [Carlos] Boozer and Deron [Williams] out of the game. He knocked down some shots and opened it up for them.”
Matthews, a rookie guard, is the son of former NBA player Wes Matthews. He is averaging 11.3 points per game in 37 minutes and is one of the players assigned to guard Anthony.
Anthony’s frustration reached a boiling point when he had an animated discussion with Andersen at the end of the first half near the bench area.
“I don’t want to point fingers at Birdman, but it was just that one shot,” Anthony explained. “I never have a problem with guys taking shots, but at that point and time of the game that shot wasn’t the right shot for us. All I told him was ‘We didn’t need that shot.’ We talked it over at halftime, I gave it to him clear what I was trying to say, and he understood.
“I’m in a battle. I don’t have time to worry about people’s feelings right now.”
Anthony made 13 of 26 shots from the field and grabbed 11 rebounds in Game 4, but he did have a game-high nine turnovers, a clear indication that he was doing too much and was getting fatigued.
“I tried. I did everything to win the game If I could do it by myself I would,” Anthony said. “I just don’t want them – them, my teammates – to give up. We’re definitely in a dogfight.”
