Karl Malone's All-Time Starting Five

I was on the radio yesterday listening to the Dan Patrick Show, and who should pop on but Karl Malone. One of the questions Mr. Patrick asked the ol' Mailman was, 'Who is your all-time starting five?' Malone gave the predictable Stockton as PG (he better have, Stockton was his meal ticket), then went to the Big O as his shooting guard. Wilt Chamberlain was his starting center, then things got interesting. For his power forward, he chose his current man-crush, LeBron. Then, at small forward, he opted for Scottie Pippen. His rational was that Pippen led the Bulls in all statistical categories when Jordan was gone, but I think Malone still hold some spite against MJ, and for good reason...the guy (along with, more importantly, three referees), prevented him from mailing home a championship.

Anyway, I thought it was an interesting top 5, and I'd give that team a fair shot against any other all-time starting line-up anyone would care to assemble. It was certainly controversial, which is fun.

I think an all-time starting line-up has to have MJ and Magic. The rest are pretty debatable. I'd go with Magic, MJ, LeBron, Bird and Shaq.

Anyone else care to chime in?

I like these questions.

Shaq was a nice call at C.

I think even an all time greats team has to take into account roles and matchups. It's also tough because the Game has changed so much, in today's NBA 3pt shooting is absolutely critical, and that is going to count against most of the old timers.

I'd probably go with Bill Russell at C, Lebron at PF, Bird at SF, Jordan at SG, and... PG is probably the toughest call for me, so I'm going to go with the homer pick in Stockton over Magic. With all of those other alpha scorers out there I think Russell and Stockton would be guys that did all of the little things. Stockton's 3pt shooting and willingness to do things like set screens and shoot spot up jump shots off the ball are a big factor in me making that choice too.

TheMagnus wrote:

I like these questions.

Shaq was a nice call at C.

I think even an all time greats team has to take into account roles and matchups.  It's also tough because the Game has changed so much, in today's NBA 3pt shooting is absolutely critical, and that is going to count against most of the old timers.

I'd probably go with Bill Russell at C, Lebron at PF, Bird at SF, Jordan at SG, and... PG is probably the toughest call for me, so I'm going to go with the homer pick in Stockton over Magic.  With all of those other alpha scorers out there I think Russell and Stockton would be guys that did all of the little things.  Stockton's 3pt shooting and willingness to do things like set screens and shoot spot up jump shots off the ball are a big factor in me making that choice too.  

Man, I like that lineup, as a TEAM. Shooting. Scoring (not just shooting), PASSING, defense, rebounding...Plus, you could NOT put together a more ferociously competitive bunch of winners.

If I were Malone, I'd just go with the All Homer Team:

Stockton
Horny (or Darrell Griffith)
Thurl Bailey
Young Karl Malone
Mark Eaton.

Put Griffith in there (ANOTHER 44"+ leaper), even though he wasn't as good an all-around player as Horny, and you have the best starting lineup the Jazz are ever likely to have. THAT starting group, from '86-'91, should have been able to compete for championships.

Randomly bringing up box scores confirms my recollection of the Jazz routinely blocking 10-15% of opponents' FGA. Fast, big, athletic and talented.

BTW, the total salary for that lineup never got all the way up to $10 millioin.