Karl Malone frustrated with some current NBA players

Karl Malone nba news

NBA Update: So, the NBA had another round of expected and at this point embarrassing drama on Saturday night. The ABC-broadcast “Saturday Showcase” was scuttled in the ratings not just by Caleb Swanigan’s work in the low post or Middle Tennessee’s move to make a game out of its contest against Butler, but by the decision from Cleveland Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue to rest LeBron James while sitting out stars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love due to legitimate, if previously conquered, injuries.

The ABC crew tore into the Cavs during the team’s expected blowout loss to the previously-stinkin’ Los Angeles Clippers, but few other deigned to complain. There is legitimate anger at this routine, but the over the top furor regarding the NBA’s uproar over missed games is mostly limited to those that either don’t have to watch the league – fair-weather fans, cable TV guys that talk mostly about the Cowboys – or those too bored to thrash on about some superteams’ insistence on sticking it to the league that presents them with an 82-game season every fall.

Ol’ Schoolteachers-and-Firefighters himself, Karl Malone, falls somewhere in between the two camps listed above. The Basketball Hall of Famer and Utah Jazz legend didn’t miss a game due to injury between 1985 and 2003 (only suspension – Karl elbowed some dudes), and he’s not missing a chance to rail against the kids who probably can’t be trusted to even handle the damned Dremel:


John Karalis at Red’s Army beat us to some of the more obvious punches:

What bothers me most about this is that it’s supposed to be some kind of “checkmate” move in the argument because now the only way to refute it is to compare the rigors of being a cop or a firefighter to playing basketball. These are two completely different worlds that in no way should be compared. I’m certainly not going to make any arguments that can be misconstrued as the denigration of the men and women who put their lives on the line daily to make sure we’re safe.
So what Malone did here was basically use first responders as human shields in an argument that should never have gone there in the first place.
Stop comparing sports players to other people with real jobs. It’s stupid, and as Karalis reminds us the whole act does nothing but disparage those who the speaker is propping him or herself with in that instance. As if schoolteachers and first responders are above or unable to seek out a chance to collectively bargain a way to ensure that they are at their best when educating our children or responding to our pleas for professional help in case of emergency.

The modern NBA, with the millions that follow it on a day-long basis in several different international time zones, doesn’t allow for a chance to rest on the job. A night off against Loren Meyer in 1996 or Derek Strong any other year is not the same as a night off against a similarly-ranked scrub in 2017 – ask James Harden or any other star whether it’s OK to take plays off defensively in full view of the internet in ways that Magic, Bird, and (shock horror!) Michael Jordan and Karl Malone did during their masterful careers.
NBA teams rest players because they want their stars to be at their peak in June. LeBron James plays from October until June every season, with the only ripple in that run coming in the compressed and for some teams devastating 2011-12 schedule, in the wake of the league’s move to lock out its players, which pitted 66 games into a spot where 52 games used to go. If LeBron James falls before June, or if he fades in June, he’ll be raked over the coals.

The nonsense has driven LeBron James into becoming a sympathetic figure. Roll over Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, tell Goliath the news:

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