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0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Feb 14, 2005

What they're writing and saying about former Jazz star Karl Malone and his retirement announcement:

"Seems only fitting Reggie Miller and Karl Malone are going out together, though I don't see it getting that serious. What would happen when it became time to exchange rings?"

-- Peter Vecsey, New York Post

"I think he's still part of the Jazz. I'm sorry -- I can't imagine Karl Malone for the Lakers. He's like Emmitt Smith. . . . Nobody knows him and Cardinals; everybody knows him from the Cowboys."

-- Former teammate and current Jazz forward

Andrei Kirilenko

"(Karl Malone and John Stockton) did it every single night -- and if they had a bad game, they took it on the chin and got ready to go the next day. If they had a couple bad games, or our team was struggling, they didn't not show up for practice. They would be over there doing something to get themselves ready to play. . . . They'd be there competing like the devil to make it work. . . . Nobody can ever measure that. I was just was fortunate to have an opportunity to coach them."

-- Jazz coach Jerry Sloan

"Some of the injuries Karl may have sustained that he played with would put players out on the injured list today."

-- Former Jazz teammate Thurl Bailey

"The Adonis physique overshadows the fact Malone is every bit as tough mentally. When he became so exhausted during (last year's) Western Conference finals that he fell asleep in his home outside the bedroom -- the first time that had ever happened in his career -- he took it as a sign he was losing his mental edge."

-- David Moore, Dallas Morning News

"He didn't owe us anything, as far as I'm concerned."

-- Jerry Sloan, on Malone leaving Utah

to join the Los Angeles Lakers

"He had a brilliant career. Everybody has to call it quits some day."

-- Lakers star Kobe Bryant,

speaking to the Los Angeles Times

"The hope was he'd play a couple of years with us, break the (scoring) record and win the championship. I'm disappointed for him . . . that he didn't get the championship, which is what he was mostly after."

-- Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak,

speaking to the L.A. Times

"(Karl Malone and John Stockton) didn't want to be embarrassed. We (were), because we didn't win a championship. That was embarrassing every year. But, it's what you do after that - in my opinion - that's so important. We talk with guys now, young guys, and say, 'Yeah, you had a bad day yesterday - but what do you do tomorrow to try to prepare for it?' "

-- Jerry Sloan

"Karl's contributions to the Utah Jazz and the NBA are incalculable. . . . We all hope he remains involved in the NBA in some fashion."

-- NBA commissioner David Stern

"(Heat boss) Pat Riley tried to talk to Malone this season and could never get through. Who knew (Spurs coach Gregg) Popovich had that much cache? Malone traveled to San Antonio to meet with Popovich, but Malone didn't return a call to a Hall of Fame coach."

-- San Antonio Express-News

columnist Buck Harvey

"Though Malone is the NBA's second all-time leading scorer, the Spurs valued him for his toughness and defense."

-- Johnny Ludden, San Antonio Express-News

"As part of a title team in San Antonio, given Malone's famed ability to inflame passions, chances are he wouldn't have been widely embraced as a cuddly, fortysomething, future Hall of Famer filling the only void on his resume. It's far more likely he'd have been branded as an opportunistic rider of sleeveless shirttails who had to ship himself from Salt Lake City to Hollywood to the Alamo because he couldn't bear leaving the game without a ring. And if he joined the Spurs, and then they failed to win it all this June, guess who would have taken the bulk of the blame?"

-- ESPN.com's Marc Stein

"For most of his career, he'd full out mope over any insinuation that he was less than perfect, even when those insinuations were prefaced with the most glowing, complimentary preambles imaginable. Malone could ferret out a doubt about his or the Jazz's greatness from beneath 19 layers of praise. Questions about what went wrong after the occasional sub-par performance was met with derision, as if the writer or reporter had somehow impugned his entire career."

-- ESPN The Magazine's Ric Bucher

"Although Malone was named the NBA's MVP twice, he never really was its best player. He seemed to be nervous in big games at times because he didn't have the natural ability of players like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas or Magic Johnson. He worked harder on his success because he had so much more to overcome."

-- Sam Smith, Chicago Tribune

"One of the things I respected Karl the most for, even though sometimes it got him in trouble, was he told it like it was. Even if you didn't like it, he wasn't afraid to say it."

-- Thurl Bailey

"He was a great example for the people around him -- how to stay in life, how to respect yourself. Because he put himself in a kind of tough position. John (Stockton) was respectable, too. No doubt. But he was like, quiet. He wasn't like show everybody 'I am here -- Karl Malone is here, on the floor."