When Karl Malone came out of Louisiana Tech in 1985, he wasn’t unknown: he was taken #13 by the Utah Jazz, a team he played for 18 years until he spent his last season with the Los Angeles Lakers.
He was a great power forward and ran the floor beautifully, but when Utah drafted him, they paired him with John Stockton and that became a legendary duo.
Stockton became the NBA career assist leader and he played with Malone until he retired.
They were ridiculously good together. Stockton finished with 15,806 assists and many of them were to Malone.
With a combination of power, agility and a tremendous motor, Malone was not a guy you wanted to see barreling down the lane. He was a tremendously effective and punishing player as you’ll see in these highlights from his 1989-90 season.
He went on to become a member of the legendary 1992 Dream Team but never won his ultimate goal: an NBA championship.
