By Joël Pütz | Sports journalist
If some players impress with their grace and elegance with the ball in hand, others, on the contrary, scare their opponents with their simple physical strength. A legend of the league was notably subject to very specific treatment from the Heat, as Udonis Haslem recently recounted.
It’s a debate that comes up regularly within the NBA community: the current NBA would be much softer than in the 90s in particular. Wishing to clean up its image as much as possible, the big league has indeed done everything to be as mainstream as possible. Penalties for serious offenses have therefore increased drastically and even trash-talking is now subject to technical fouls.
Truth be told, it’s unlikely that some players from thirty years ago could play the same way today. not simply because of the evolution of basketball, but also because they would be far too violent on the floors. Having spent no less than two decades in the NBA, Udonis Haslem notably shared a rather astonishing anecdote about a particularly controversial Hall of Famer.
The Heat’s mind-blowing scouting report against Karl Malone
I remember the days when we played Karl Malone… We used to sit and study the scouting report when we had to play Karl Malone, and the first thing Bob McAdoo used to do say in the research report was “Protect yourself”. Damn it. To protect yourself ? What does this have to do with defense and shooting?
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” Protect yourself ! » That’s the first thing that appeared on Karl Malone’s evaluation report. Protect yourself because he could smash you with an elbow. We weren’t talking about his jump shot, or any of his moves. The instruction was to protect yourself.
Yes, Karl Malone was one of the greatest interior players in history with no less than 36,000 career points. But he was also one of the dirtiest players ever seen on the floor.
A true physical monster at 2m06 and 117 kilos of sharp muscles, the Mailman was the type to knock you out if he had the chance. With him, the expression “playing elbows” took on its full meaning, especially on the rebound. Among the biggest mistakes of all time, we include his attack on Isiah Thomas, who injured his eye and who required… 40 stitches. Absolute carnage.
28 years ago, Karl Malone elbowed Isiah Thomas, giving him an injury that required 40 stitches to close ???? pic.twitter.com/6hMN91RYWI
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) December 14, 2019
Karl Malone is a Hall of Famer, a legendary scorer and one of the greatest players in Jazz history, but he was also the very definition of a dirty player in the NBA. If he played the same way in the current league, he would be suspended for almost an entire season, that’s saying something.
2024-01-26 12:50:00
#priority #protect #smash
