Who Malone Prefers Over Michael Jordan

Who Malone Prefers Over Michael Jordan, If Karl Malone were starting his own squad from the 1992 Dream Team, his first pick wouldn’t be MJ.Ask any former Chicago Bulls teammate of Scottie Pippen, right down to the man whose NBA career he nearly destroyed before it started in Toni Kukoc, and they’ll tell you that he was unequivocally their favorite teammate. Pippen’s mix of all-around brilliance on both sides of the ball, coupled with his calm and steady on-court and practice court demeanor, make him the ideal leader. As a Bulls fan growing up outside Chicago at the time of Scottie’s run with the team, I’ve for years remarked that I would end games angrier with the play of Michael Jordan than Pippen by probably a 20-to-1 margin. Though his missteps were legendary, he otherwise seemed to do everything right.

To take him, on a hypothetical team in what would be the Greatest Draft Ever, over Michael Jordan? Weirdly, if compassionately, that’s what former Utah Jazz forward and fellow Hall of Famer Karl Malone says he would do (if not afforded the opportunity to select former Jazz teammate John Stockton, ‘natch).

In an interview with “The Dan Patrick Show” on Wednesday, hyping up the fabulous “Dream Team” documentary that premiered that night, Malone had a pretty cool (if, to these scoutin’ eyes, a little off) insight into why he’d go with No. 33 ahead of No. 23:

“I would have to start my team with Scottie Pippen,” he said. “This is why I would take Scottie: Do you remember the time that Michael retired? I watched Scottie Pippen when the Chicago Bulls weren’t really good and Scottie led that team in every statistical category, and I just remembered that. Plus, he’s a guy who could care less about scoring. He wants to stop the best player on the other team. That would have been pretty cool, to see Scottie guarding Michael.”