Karl Malone - Lipofsky Basketballphoto.com photo   Charles Barkley - Steve Lipofsky Lipofsky.com photo

NBA BEAT - KARL MALONE, CHARLES BARKLEY LeBRON BASHING

James Loving - National Radio Text Service

In the mold of Magic Johnson former NBA stars and Hall of Fame members were never on an NBA title winning team but attack LeBron James for leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers in his quest to be a member of an NBA title winning team

MAGIC JOHNSON HAS COMPANY

Thursday August 19, 2010

You would think that LeBron James was responsible for Israel murdering and killing Palestinians and stealing their land just because he chose to move on to another team and sign with the Miami Heat leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers behind him after seven years of hard labor trying win an NBA title with a team without a strong roster and an owner who is spiteful.

Magic Johnson had his say that he would never do what James did. The problem is Johnson always had a strong team to play with including two of the 50 greatest players to play in the NBA Kareem Abdul Jabbar and James Worthy.

Now Karl Malone an inductee last week into the basketball Hall of Fame and Charles (The Round Mound of Rebound) Barkley are jumping on the beat down LeBron bandwagon. It's astounding that their not beating down Tiger Woods while they're at it.

This beat down LeBron story is getting old and let's be done with it. Malone without a doubt is the best power forward ever to play the game. He is a two-time NBA MVP and is second on the league's career scoring list with 36,928 points trailing only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He also toiled 18 for years with the Utah Jazz and played his last season and 19th in the league in 2003-04 with the Los Angeles Lakers. With all of his blood sweat and tears he joins Barkley on the NEVER WAS TEAM consisting of NBA players who have never been a member of an NBA title winning team.

Barkley didn't stick it out with one team so his complaints indicate that he's full of it. Barkley called James out and said that he wants James to remember that he said negative things about him. He called James' one hour special of what team he would sign with a punk move. We felt it was a bad move but to call James a punk is going overboard and lacks class BUT....HEY... THAT'S BARKLEY.

Barkley started out with the Philadelphia 76ers with Dr. J (Julius Erving) who is also one of the 50 greatest players to ever play in the league. They played three seasons together and never won a title although the Sixers did win in 1983 prior to Barkley's arrival the following season 1984-85.

Barkley was a super good player but not a great player although he is in the Hall of Fame. He was a great player for his size. Though he was listed at 6'6" he played bigger as if he were 6'9." He wasn't the type of player who could dominate a game on a regular basis as can James.

Barkley was traded to the Phoenix Suns where he came closest to being on a title winning team losing to the Chicago Bulls in the 1993 finals in six games. Barkley was traded again to the Houston Rockets where he played for five seasons but couldn't get the NBA title winning job done.

The question is what is his bitch? He moved around and couldn't win the title so why does he beat up on James? The answer is that the Round Mound of rebound is probably insecure, needs to be heard and this is a good topic for him to make some noise and be noticed. He is known for having diarrhea of the mouth with a quick wit. But Charles.... get a life.

NOTE:

Other great players never to have played on an NBA title winning team were Malone's teammate at Utah John Stockton, Elgin Baylor of the Los Angeles Lakers and Patrick Ewing of the New York Knicks.

One of the reasons that Malone's stuck it out with the Jazz so long is the relationship he had with John Stockton. They had chemistry but the two of them weren't strong enough to win the title. It's been said it TAKES THREE top notch players to make a winning team.

The following is what Stockton and Malone did accomplish together:

# Both Malone and Stockton were selected to be a part of the Dream Team, the legendary 1992 U.S. Olympic basketball team that was the first to feature professional NBA players. They are two-time Olympic Gold medalists, having won one in 1992 and another 1996 in Atlanta.

# Both hold many records of longevity, having faced very few long-term injuries in their careers and having played for 19 seasons each.

# Between them, they hold almost every major statistical record for the Utah Jazz franchise.

# Between them, they played 1412 games together, most by far for any teammates in NBA history. In the 1988 Western Conference playoffs the Jazz took the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers, led by perennial All-Stars Magic Johnson, James Worthy and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, to seven games. Malone upped his production to 29 points per game in that postseason.

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