Karl Malone Retirement Press Conference
2/13/05

Karl Malone, Kay Malone, Jerry Sloan, Larry Miller

Karl: I might sound like a politician today, I’m not trying to do that, Governor (referring to Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.). I think what I have is a lot of thank yous and appreciation. First of all, to my mom, just looking down, happy birthday today. We’ll get into that more, but today she would’ve been 67. So, that had something to do with my decision.

I’d like to thank my wife for being here, for being there for me on my rough days. I’d like to thank my kids for going through mood changes with their dad when...he won a game he was fine, when he’d lose a game he’d take it personal. I would like to thank Larry and Gayle for seeing something in this kid from Louisiana, that maybe I didn’t see myself, along with coach Frank Layden and Dave Checketts.

Coach Sloan, I’d like to say thank you to you. Continue to run 13’s, pick-and rolls...I’d like to say thank you to you. Most importantly, I’d like to say thanks to the fans, for allowing me to grow into a man from a boy in Louisiana. I’d also like to say, also, to the people that wasn’t fans, because I drew strength and energy off you.

The referees, I’d like to say thanks to you because I knew what I was getting into, so that made me bulk up a little bit more.

To ex-teammates, that’s here, that I played with. A lot of them went through, by me. Howard Eisley is here, we went through some wars, and we had a great time. Thanks to Howard and other teammates as well, Mark Eaton, thank you for making my job easy when I got beat by blocking shots. Tyrone, you got a job now Tyrone, and I don’t.

So, I came here today and I will try my best not to be emotional, because its not about that. Its about saying thanks to people who gave me the opportunity to be good, bad, whatever you might call it. I wouldn’t change a thing. Things I’ve said, I thought about them, I meant them, I don’t take them back. Things that’s done, I grew from it, friends of mine grew from it. People that was around Karl Malone knew around the end of the day what they had. I tried not to short change anybody, whether I should have played or not, I tried to give it everything I had every night.

I basically want to open this up to say thanks, and introduce other people. Larry, if you don’t know Larry something wrong with you, he’s the owner of the Jazz, my wife Kay, and coach Sloan. I turn the time over the coach Sloan...(Larry whispers something to Karl). Oh, I’m here for a particular reason (laughs). That’ll make Sportscenter I’m sure. (Kay whispers something to Karl) Oh, Matt (Harpring), I have to say thanks to Matt and his wife. I’d like to say thanks to you guys for being here.

The reason we’re here is for me to announce my retirement and make it official. One thing I wanted to do was, I started here, 18 years even though I left for a year. I grew here as a Jazzman. If I’m fortunate enough to go into the Hall Of Fame, I will go in as a Jazzman, with the old uniform and not the new one. I would like to officially announce my retirement from the game of basketball, playing-wise. Now, where that lead to after that, in some capacity, we’ll sit down and make that decision as a family.

But I’d like to say that, on behalf of the Malone family, I officially announce my retirement.  I don’t know, but when I said I’m retired from basketball playing, you will not see me playing again, I promise. So I’d like to say thanks for coming, and there will no unbelievable comebacks, I promise. Seen that, didn’t like that, won’t do that.

Thanks for reminding me. Larry leaned over and said “Uh, you probably want to tell them why you’re here.” So, now, I’d like to turn the time over to Coach Sloan. It don’t matter. I guess I’m in charge of this, so...let’s hear from Kay. I’m sorry.

Kay Malone: “Well, I really didn’t want to talk, because I knew be somewhat emotional. Leaving here was really hard, but going to another organization was a growing experience for me and my family. We miss a lot of the fans, the ushers, Wally that was here today, my kids would shake his hand coming to the game. A lot of the front office people, people in the background, people that worked here, their kids that babysat my kids. My kids can babysit your kids now.

So its a happy day and also a sad day, because I know my husband had touched a lot of people’s hearts, through basketball and also just giving. So from the bottom of my heart and my family, thank you.

Jerry Sloan: I’m just happy you decided to retire because I get tired of being asked the question when you were going to play again.I go back to when Karl first stayed here we stayed in the same hotel together the first year, I said its going to be interesting 10 years from now to see what you’re like. One of the things he said was “I’m never going to change.” And as far as his work habit and everything was concerned, I don't think that ever changed until he got to be in the league for 16, 17 years. Those were the times when we felt like, in order to be able to have him for the game, not practicing as hard as he’d practiced in the early stage of his career.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get the opportunity to coach another player who worked as hard off the floor and on the floor like Karl did. And I think that speaks very well for him. For what he was when he came here, 47, 49 percent free-throw shooter, and he moved every aspect of his game forward to try and be a great player. To me that’s something everyone can work towards and have the desire to do it. In the coaching business, its wonderful to have a guy like that, and certainly the reason why I’m still here. Thanks Karl.”

Karl: “You’re welcome.”

Larry Miller: “I’ll just share a few thoughts. I had known this was coming officially I guess, probably since Thursday or Friday...I think it was something that was out on the horizon. I knew there were possibilities of you going to play somewhere else for this season, and you’d had some contacts from other teams...I figured I’d believe when I saw you sitting here. Not based on what I saw from the media. In fact, the morning you and I talked, Deseret News reported that you were going to San Antonio to play.

I did have some reflections that I’d like to share. Its interesting when 18 years of play, thousands and thousands of highlight play. If we watched the highlight tape of your career we’d be here a long time, even if we watched 3 to 5 seconds of play. (Tearing up, grabbing a kleenex from his side) I wonder why they put those Kleenex right there. But I’ve had a real flood of memories...about October Karl and I had the opportunity to spend a whole day together...we spent three or fours hours at KJZZ, getting all the measurements for the bronze that we’re going to put on the southeast plaza here about a year from now, I guess. (After that) we went up to my house, spent about three hours talking just about things, and I commented to Gayle that night after we had that conversation that I thought that was at least the most mature conversation that I’ve ever had with Karl, and I think the most appreciated.

He and I have had a lot of conversations, mostly good but a few not so good, some of you know about those. But its been interesting to watch Karl’s career, and I couldn’t help thinking back from that conversation in October to 19 or 20 years ago, the summer of ‘85 when we drafted him. From that time forward he and I really seemed to hit it off. We did a lot of interesting things, like sit in the parking lot of Wendy’s next to the Toyota store in Murray from about 10 o’clock to about 1 o’clock at night. The main topic of conversation was about him and his learning and growing experiences, and he had a lot of concern about whether he would ever meet a young lady who would marry him for him and not because he was a famous NBA basketball player, had a lot of money, this and that, would he ever find someone for him.

And it took a little while as he matured and his career came along for him to meet Kay. When Kay reached out, and when he answered that question...so to watch him move through the stages of his life, has been an interesting experience, a good experience, although there were a few moments I would have described it as a good experience. But the good outweighed the bad.

I got asked a lot of times and we talked it at John’s retirement, when I’ve been asked to describe John in a single word and I described him in a single word and I’ve said Thoroughbred. I’ve been asked a lot of times to describe Karl in a single word, and the one that's always surfaced first over the last 16 or 18 years has been Warrior. He played a lot of nights when he shouldn’t.

I remember one night when turned his ankle before halftime. We were playing Portland, probably 10 or 12 years ago, we were in this building. We went in the locker room and they cut the tape off him and his ankle was about the size of his calf, his calf is pretty big by the way. They taped him back up, he hobbled out to where the fans could see him, and all of a sudden he started walking normally. Played the rest of that game, we were behind halftime by 12. He scored 26 points and had 14 rebounds, playing through pain that very few people knew he had. He just adjusted his game a little bit, and did the things he could still do on a leg and a quarter.

I think his teammates learned a lot about him that night and were not afraid to follow him after that, because they knew what he suffered through or worked through to do.

You see when we drafted him he had he looks like a skinny 18-year old kid. We didn’t think that at the time, but this came from more work than you can imagine, and I’m serious and Jerry, Marc McKown can attest to this. Karl would work out with the rest of the team...the workout would be Karl’s warmup, then the team would leave he’d workout. He did that every day for 18 years. He got after me Thursday when he called, he said “I’m going to wait here for this plan.” and I didn’t call him for four hours, I was in another meeting. He said “you stopped me from working out today.” I said why are you working out? He said “I don’t know, its just a habit.” But he still works out three hours a day.

I’ve said it before, despite all the ups and downs, my relationship with Karl is...besides my family, has been one of the most special relationships in my life, I’m not sure it hasn’t been the single most special relationship in my life. We worked through all the things that happened, an interesting thing always occurred, we would always talk to each other regardless of what was said by whom. As long as we kept the door open, talking to each other we were ok.

But to have been a part of the Jazz organization, and I know Jerry, Gordie, Phil and the rest of the coaches feel this way, and I think players who have been a part of what he brought to this team, was truly a once in a lifetime experience. The sadness for me today, and I’m really happy for Karl, that his body is really in good enough condition that he can still walk and cut logs, and stuff like that. He loves doing that. That he’s got good health and family intact. The kind of career he’s had puts a lot of pressure eon relationships, but he was able to make the choices that he did. Choosing the time and places, I’m grateful that he called me and set up today, he and I together through a number of people in the Jazz organization., that he had the character and class to come back here where he played 18 years...my experience with him is beyond the ability to fully describe my dealings with him. Above all, no matter who he was mad at, or wasn’t, no matter how he was feeing emotionally, physically, anything else...he came to play every night...He was just ready to play every night and many nights he shouldn’t have been.

I’ll be quiet now Karl and just tell you on behalf of this organization, there’;s no way I know of to fully thank you for all that you’ve done, but I will tell you thank you anyways. I hope you look forward to the time you can share with your little family and friends. We’ll have an event in this building probably in June or July, we’ll let you pick that, maybe your birthday or something.

The true sadness for me doesn’t come in Karl's retirement...in the NBA, where do the Karl Malone’s come from now? They broke the mold. And I love you.”

Karl: I would like to say a couple more things. I know one of the questions will be records. All time scoring records, why you didn’t play another year. I’ll be very candid with you in this interview today. If you ask an easy question, I’ll give you n answer like you asked the question. But I’ll try to be very candid, even though I don’t have to explain myself, I will. To be honest with you, I had a timetable, I wanted to be 100% healthy before I made my decision. Before I had my surgery, I said that was my last game. I was told by a couple of people that don’t make a decision when you’re hurt, don’t make a decision when you’re recovering, so I didn’t. I wanted to make my decision when I was 100%. I became healthy physically, I was able to run jump cut, do all the things I was doing at a high pace. Bike, which I love to do, miles. I was able to do that, so I started thinking about questions. So let me help you out here.

What about that record, the all-time scoring record? Well, when I got drafted 13th, that meant that there were 12 teams that didn’t have faith in what I could do. So I decided right then that I wasn’t coming here for personal accolades, and a personal accolade is all-time scoring leader. There’s no doubt in my mind that if I played semi-healthy I could’ve did that. But that was personal.

I came here from Louisiana with no individual goals, I came saying to myself that every person that watched me play that they;re saying this kid gave it all every night. I think that’s the most disappointing thing now, that you want the paycheck, you want the big paycheck, but you won’t pay the price.

I do sympathize with what the Jazz are going through right now, because you do have guys on this team that really want to win. You have guys on this team that show up to get a check. That’s the most disappointing thing. So, I will be very candid.

I do watch the Jazz, they are my team that I watch. I sneak them sometimes, because when the family see me sometimes they ask “what you watching the Jazz for?” Well, I got friends on that team, so I watch them.

The all-time scoring title is not a big concern for me. When 12 other teams passed me, I said that I was coming here as a team. The thing that will stick with me for the rest of my life is not winning a championship, I’m not going to lie to you. That was my ultimate goal, but that was a team goal, not an individual goal. I will say the two years we made it to the Finals with the Jazz was the funnest years I have had of all. I had a group of guys, with the exception of one or two, that truly wanted to be there and wanted to win. I will say that it was different this year making it to the Finals, but I would not change that experience for nothing, that made me grow as a human more than anything.

Any adversity in your life, there can be some good. If I wouldn’t have lost my mom in all of this, I don’t think I could’ve dealt with my injuries. We all get humbled at times, maybe that was my time to be humbled. When I lost my mom it was kind of like, I can handle anything now. As cruel as that can sound in life, I went through times when I was bitter. Ok, I’m walking along the beach, here comes a 75, 85-year old couple walking the beach with a bottle of wine in one hand a cigar in the other hand. 85 years old. My mom didn’t drink or smoke, what am I missing here?

Also, I had a good friend, that about nine days ago died unexpectedly from a heart attack, back home. You put things in perspective, you wonder why I made my decision now, a lot of things came into that decision. I did visit San Anton’ on the way back home, but when I got on the plane I knew that it was done, it was time. Because I look at basketball as 100% mentally and 100% physically. If I can’t bring you 200%, for me, I can’t bring you anything. When I lost my mom, I lost a piece of me that can never be replaced. So, that’s why I know the time is now.

No matter what team I played with or went to, I could not give you 100% mentally. Physically, yes. Mentally, no. Records, all records are not, I repeat, all records are NOT meant to be broken. All you so-called basketball experts say they are. I beg to differ. I don't think they are.

I am totally at peace with my decision. My family have been through the ups and downs. My kids have grown, they’ve seen dad happy, they’ve seen dad mad, sad, they’ve seen dad cry. Show me one man that don’t cry, and you’re not a man. Because grown men do cry, I have, I do. I cried at Free Willy when he got free. I’m very emotional. I can just be watching something on TV and I cry.

But today is not the day, today is a day for me to say thanks to a lot of people. Thanks to the Darrell Griffiths, Adrian Dantleys, Mark Eatons, Tyrones, the Jeff Hornaceks and John Stocktons. Thanks to the front office, Kim Turner used to say, “Boy I’m makin’ you famous.” Thanks Kim. But you know what, I don’t want to be famous anymore. So I just want to say thanks from the bottom of my heart. To my family, to my friends.

I’m not retiring from work, I’m retiring from playing basketball. Other opportunities have arisen as we speak. I’ve had calls within the last ten hours on things and I say “ok, I want to do that” “no, I don’t want to do that.”