Karl Malone used a combination of local radio interviews and The Salt Lake City Tribune as his personal launching pad for shots fired at his former Utah Jazz organization last week. On the one year anniversary of the last game Jerry Sloan coached in Utah, the Mailman delivered his own grade for how he felt the Jazz handled that situation.
In summary of the Jerry Sloan/Deron Williams situation, Karl Malone had this to say:
“On the whole handling of that, I would have to give [them] a D or F, and I would lean more toward an F,” said Malone, who has remained close to Sloan since his own retirement in 2004.
In that Salt Lake City Tribune article, Malone also went on to say something about how he has to buy his own tickets to Utah Jazz games now, and other things like ownership sided with Deron Williams and that the Jazz are basically really mean people for the way things ended with Sloan.
To all of which Jazz owner and CEO, Greg Miller, fired back by way of his blog called Greg In Utah. He didn’t mince words really either, offering the following:
The fact is Karl is still as high-maintenance as he ever was, but now he has nothing to offer to offset the grief and aggravation that comes with him. Some would argue that he could coach our big men. I would love to have Karl inspire them and teach him how to be warriors like he was. That can’t happen. Karl is too unreliable and too unstable.
Let me explain. A year ago, when Jerry retired, Karl rushed to Salt Lake City. He got in front of every camera he could find at the first game following Jerry’s departure. He positioned himself as an authority on Jerry’s departure by saying something like “the Jerry Sloan I know isn’t a quitter. He left because he didn’t feel wanted.” Karl wasn’t in the locker room during the conversations with me and Jerry. Had he been, he would have seen me (and my mom) do everything possible to convince Jerry to stay. By his own admission Karl hadn’t spoken to Jerry since Jerry left. Karl’s comments on the radio and on national television made an already stressful situation worse. Then in his next breath, on national television, Karl asked me to hire him as a coach.
Then to be clear, Miller also said this too:
I’ve bitten my tongue time and again when Karl has made derogatory comments. I’ve tried to keep in mind the words of one of my mentors close to the situation who said “Karl Malone is giant pain in the a–, but he’s our pain in the a–.”
Since these guys now have all those feelings out in the open, maybe they can start working things out here. This would almost be somewhat comical if it were not kind of awkward.
