Yesterday, I offered up the idea of looking at two iconic members of Sonic history. One of them is the ultimate Seattle hero, the other the ultimate villain.
Seattle sports fans can argue about plenty of things. Is Dave Krieg better than Matt Hasselbeck? Would Felix Hernandez outduel Randy Johnson? Greatest Seattle sports hero: Gary Payton, Steve Largent or Ken Griffey? Does Rick Neuheisel have a soul, or rather, were you to slice open his midsection, would you find only a slimy concoction of bile, self-importance, and teeth?
We can all agree on one question, though: Karl Malone is the supreme villain in our history. Sure, you’ve got a Clemens over there, a Jabbar perhaps, the entire Oakland Raiders roster, and so on, but the Mailman is hands-down the most hated man to ever take the court against a team from Seattle. Any counterargument is nonsense.
The only great thing about Karl Malone was that he made himself so easy to hate. The flopping, the elbows, the idiotic hand-behind-the-head dunking … heck, just being a member of the Jazz was enough to make us hate him, but then he had to go and be jerkoff on top of that? Phew! We hated Karl Malone like we hated Californians who bought our real estate – because there was no conceivable reason not to.
All of which goes a long way to explaining how hard it is for me to state this: When it comes to the argument of Karl Malone or Shawn Kemp in head to head competition, it’s pretty darn hard to make a case for the Reignman. To wit:
- The two played 42 games while Kemp was a starter for the Sonics. Kemp scored 20 points or more ten times. The Mailman did it 40 times.
- Malone averaged more points, assists, rebounds, committed fewer turnovers and personal fouls, shot better from the field, and got to the line 50% more often.
- In Malone’s five best scoring efforts, he tallied 38, 35, 32, 32, 32, a total of 169 points. Kemp’s five best efforts? 29, 29, 26, 26, 26, for 136 points.
- The Mailman racked up 10+ free throws made nine times. Kemp did it thrice.
- Malone fathered one child out of wedlock, as far as we know. Kemp had at least three or four. Or five. Fine, there may have been six, but, geez, did you see the dress on that girl?
You could go on and on. Malone’s dominance was indicative of how he wound up as the second-highest scorer in league history despite a lack of 3-point shot or a dominant, Olajuwon-like post-up game. His was a battle of attrition. Malone wasn’t going to score 50 every other month, but he was going to get his 27 points, dammit, even if it took 28 shots to do it..
Still, setting aside Malone’s black-hole approach to offense, he was dominant. How dominant? Try this on for size, if you will. The Sonics battled the Jazz 25 times with Malone and Kemp as starters in the regular season. Of those 25 games, take a guess at how many times Kemp outscored the Mailman. Go on, guess.
Give up?
Zero.
That’s right, Kemp outscored Malone as often as George Karl modeled for Playgirl. 25 times the Mailman battled the Reignman in regular season play as equals, and 25 times Karl topped Kemp in the points column. I know, I know, Malone played more minutes, he took more shots (483 to 275 to be exact), yada, yada, yada.
Still, that’s incredible, right? Think back on all those clashes, all those times Malone escaped on fast breaks and threw down one of his ridiculous Kid ‘n Play dunks with his left hand behind his head … shouldn’t Kemp have prevailed at least once? He was Shawn Kemp, for crying out loud. The man child! The dunker of dunks! Only a Mormon would put up a poster of Karl Malone, but Kemp’s posters were in college dorm rooms across the country. You could get away with charging $20 for a Kemp’s Greatest Dunks DVD, but how much could you get for The Mailman’s Greatest Dunks? 37 cents? Heck, it probably came on Betamax, those moves were so played out.
Put all that aside, though. Even if you look at their playoff performances, Malone still comes out ahead in the numbers, almost absurdly so. He averaged 10 points more than Kemp did in the postseason. 10 points! C’mon, people, can you seriously consider any alternative to the notion that Karl Malone was head, shoulders, and pointy elbows above Shawn Kemp in their head-to-head play? Sure, Kemp could dunk, but what difference does that make, really? What kind of moron would dare suggest that any conclusion other than Malone’s supremacy is possible?
Raises hand meekly.
Um, this moron does. It’ll take some slight-of-hand statisticology that may qualify me for an emergency federal bailout, but I think I can make it work. Tune in tomorrow to find out.
Wednesday, February 25
Tuesday, February 24
The Reignman and The Mailman
Sunday, February 24, 1991 is not a day that jumps into the mind as a memorable one.
The Silence of the Lambs had dominated the box office that weekend, topping the lists for the second time in what would prove to be a five-week run as the top movie in the country. More importantly, the US launched ground war offenses into Iraq after six weeks of bombing, a battle which would end by the next weekend with the allied forces victorious.
But for the crowd of 12,080 gathered at the Seattle Center Colisseum that evening, it was an auspicious event, a foreshadowing of greatness in many ways, for that night, unbeknownst to anyone, was to be the first of many nights in which Shawn Kemp would take his place in the starting lineup matched up with Karl Malone.
Kemp had begun the season on the bench, and in Seattle’s first clash with Utah, a thrilling 97-96 loss at the Salt Palace, Kemp would only play 17 minutes as Michael Cage, Xavier McDaniel and Derrick McKey received the lion’s share of the forward and center minutes.
That all changed on December 7th, though, when the Sonics dealt the X-Man to Phoenix for veteran supersub Eddie Johnson. That evening in Orlando, while Johnson and McDaniel were packing their bags and journeying to their new homes, Kemp was inserted in the starting lineup, a position he would not relinquish (with the exception of a small spell in 91-92) for the better part of seven years.
It is said that the true judge of a great player is how he matches up against another great player, and there was no greater power forward in the NBA in the early 1990s than Karl Malone. Averaging close to 30 points a game and a double-digit rebounding total every night out, Malone was a fierce opponent for any player, let alone a youngster who just got the thumbs-up to drink legally less than two months before (insert alcoholism pun here).
Despite the overwhelming differences in the two teams’ records (Utah at 35-17, Seattle at a middling 24-28), the Sonics prevailed 103-91, thanks in no small part to a young Shawn Kemp’s 22 points. Still, even a true devotee of the green and gold would have to admit that Malone won the battle, even if he lost the war, as the Mailman finished with 29 points, 7 boards, and 5 assists.
Six years, and many battles, later, the two would match up again in late February, the final time Shawn Kemp and Karl Malone would face one another as members of the Sonics and Jazz, respectively. Again, Malone would win the battle, but Kemp won the war, as Malone’s 32-point night and Kemp’s 3-point (!) evening were overshadowed by a 2-point Sonic win in Salt Lake City.
In the intervening years, the two would match up no fewer than 25 times during regular season play, and another 17 times during post-season play, including, of course, the classic seven-game Western Conference Finals in 1997. In the next few days, we’ll take a closer look at how these two titans fared against one another, but for today, I’ll provide a small glimpse at their total numbers.
Regular Season Wins
Kemp 12, Malone 13
Playoff Wins
Kemp 8, Malone 9
PPG, Regular Season
Kemp 14.6, Malone 26.6
PPG, Playoffs
Kemp 16.6, Malone 26.8
Rebounds, Regular Season
Kemp 9.1, Malone 10.7
Rebounds, Playoffs
Kemp 9.6, Malone 10.8
TS%, Regular Season
Kemp 55%, Malone 57%
TS%, Playoffs
Kemp 62%, Malone 54%
You can tell that Malone dominates the raw numbers, a not unexpected occurrence considering the way he dominated the league for so long. But this study will delve a little deeper than the raw points and rebounds by which players are usually judged – and I believe, they’ll show that while the Mailman has the illusion of being far greater than Kemp, if you look closely at the numbers, and if you focus on the 10 biggest games of their careers in head-to-head competition, you might come away with a different impression altogether.
The Silence of the Lambs had dominated the box office that weekend, topping the lists for the second time in what would prove to be a five-week run as the top movie in the country. More importantly, the US launched ground war offenses into Iraq after six weeks of bombing, a battle which would end by the next weekend with the allied forces victorious.
But for the crowd of 12,080 gathered at the Seattle Center Colisseum that evening, it was an auspicious event, a foreshadowing of greatness in many ways, for that night, unbeknownst to anyone, was to be the first of many nights in which Shawn Kemp would take his place in the starting lineup matched up with Karl Malone.
Kemp had begun the season on the bench, and in Seattle’s first clash with Utah, a thrilling 97-96 loss at the Salt Palace, Kemp would only play 17 minutes as Michael Cage, Xavier McDaniel and Derrick McKey received the lion’s share of the forward and center minutes.
That all changed on December 7th, though, when the Sonics dealt the X-Man to Phoenix for veteran supersub Eddie Johnson. That evening in Orlando, while Johnson and McDaniel were packing their bags and journeying to their new homes, Kemp was inserted in the starting lineup, a position he would not relinquish (with the exception of a small spell in 91-92) for the better part of seven years.
It is said that the true judge of a great player is how he matches up against another great player, and there was no greater power forward in the NBA in the early 1990s than Karl Malone. Averaging close to 30 points a game and a double-digit rebounding total every night out, Malone was a fierce opponent for any player, let alone a youngster who just got the thumbs-up to drink legally less than two months before (insert alcoholism pun here).
Despite the overwhelming differences in the two teams’ records (Utah at 35-17, Seattle at a middling 24-28), the Sonics prevailed 103-91, thanks in no small part to a young Shawn Kemp’s 22 points. Still, even a true devotee of the green and gold would have to admit that Malone won the battle, even if he lost the war, as the Mailman finished with 29 points, 7 boards, and 5 assists.
Six years, and many battles, later, the two would match up again in late February, the final time Shawn Kemp and Karl Malone would face one another as members of the Sonics and Jazz, respectively. Again, Malone would win the battle, but Kemp won the war, as Malone’s 32-point night and Kemp’s 3-point (!) evening were overshadowed by a 2-point Sonic win in Salt Lake City.
In the intervening years, the two would match up no fewer than 25 times during regular season play, and another 17 times during post-season play, including, of course, the classic seven-game Western Conference Finals in 1997. In the next few days, we’ll take a closer look at how these two titans fared against one another, but for today, I’ll provide a small glimpse at their total numbers.
Regular Season Wins
Kemp 12, Malone 13
Playoff Wins
Kemp 8, Malone 9
PPG, Regular Season
Kemp 14.6, Malone 26.6
PPG, Playoffs
Kemp 16.6, Malone 26.8
Rebounds, Regular Season
Kemp 9.1, Malone 10.7
Rebounds, Playoffs
Kemp 9.6, Malone 10.8
TS%, Regular Season
Kemp 55%, Malone 57%
TS%, Playoffs
Kemp 62%, Malone 54%
You can tell that Malone dominates the raw numbers, a not unexpected occurrence considering the way he dominated the league for so long. But this study will delve a little deeper than the raw points and rebounds by which players are usually judged – and I believe, they’ll show that while the Mailman has the illusion of being far greater than Kemp, if you look closely at the numbers, and if you focus on the 10 biggest games of their careers in head-to-head competition, you might come away with a different impression altogether.
Suit Still Ongoing
The PBC managed to extricate itself from the majority of the legal cases in Seattle, but there is still one - albeit much smaller - case in which it finds itself entangled.
Greg Johns at the PI details today how the case between a group of Sonic season-ticket holders is still pending, at that there is a fair chance the group could see damages of up to $7.5 million, now that a Federal Judge has granted them a jury trial on a portion of their case.
It's a small pound of flesh, granted, but considering what Seattle fans went through with the Oklahomans, I'm guessing it might be a little more salve for the wounds.
Greg Johns at the PI details today how the case between a group of Sonic season-ticket holders is still pending, at that there is a fair chance the group could see damages of up to $7.5 million, now that a Federal Judge has granted them a jury trial on a portion of their case.
It's a small pound of flesh, granted, but considering what Seattle fans went through with the Oklahomans, I'm guessing it might be a little more salve for the wounds.
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