Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 26, 1993 TAG: 9312260044
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: HOWARD BLATT NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
After 20 seasons, the word used to describe Moses Malone, man of many rebounds and few syllables, essentially remains the same.
The word explains, as well as anything, how a slender high school prodigy from Petersburg leaped to the pros with unparalleled ease, grew from an ABA oddity into the greatest offensive rebounding center in history and finally evolved into a revered NBA dinosaur at age 38.
The word is "relentless."
"He was relentless, and so smart in getting good position," said Billy Cunningham, coach of the 1982-83 Philadelphia 76ers, who became champs thanks to Malone's overpowering presence. "He Malone would just wear people down physically. The more physical he got, the more productive he became. . . . He had something within him, a fire. I can't think of anyone who compares to him."
"Moses works very hard on both ends every night," said the Celtics' Robert Parish, the NBA's other back-to-the-basket relic. "He was in a position to take a night off and cruise if he wanted to, but he never did. It's that I respect most about him."
Everyone in basketball respects Moses Eugene Malone, the NBA's last active link to the ABA. When the renegade league was absorbed in 1976, it brought an infusion of talent that included David Thompson, George Gervin and Julius Erving.
But only Malone, whom Parish calls "one of the last true centers," endures. His enormous achievements are easy to overlook - he led the NBA in rebounding five times and offensive rebounding eight times, led the league in minutes played twice and free throws made three times, and hasn't fouled out of a game since 1977-78 - but his career never will be overlooked.
Still a force
Having returned to Philadelphia, the city where he won his only championship ring, Malone still is capable of sporadically commandeering the paint, willing his way to the free-throw line and trudging his way up the ranks of the NBA's all-time leaders.
Although back surgery limited him to 11 games with Milwaukee last season, Malone was given a $2 million deal as a free agent to be a 15 minute-a-night backup and special tutor to 7-foot-6 rookie Shawn Bradley.
"Moses helps Shawn by his work ethic, by talking to him and by going up against him every day," said Fred Carter, the Sixers' coach. "We told Shawn to listen to everything Moses says, because Moses parted the Red Sea."
Professor Malone undoubtedly will teach Bradley about a center's life in the same mostly wordless way he taught a University of Houston student from Nigeria during some nasty summer games more than a decade ago.
"He pushed me. He shoved me. He did everything he could think of to stop me from getting the ball on a rebound or stop me from scoring," said a grateful Hakeem Olajuwon. "If I got him sealed off and called for the ball, when I jumped to catch the pass, he'd bump me so hard that if I went up into the air right near the basket, I usually came down out by the key."
In a league of soaring acrobats and 7-foot jump shooters, Malone remains anchored on the blocks.
"Everyone wants to be more flashy, but Moses is still doing the same things - throwing it off the glass and going to get it," Parish said. "He knows all the tricks. And he got all the calls. All of them. Both ends. Just like Michael Jordan."
Unlike Jordan, Malone never had any trademark offensive moves or the ability to leave opponents' mouths open with his jumping ability. He has thrived because he always has followed one blue-collar commandment: Thou shalt go to the glass, again and again.
"Certain guys like [Paul] Silas, [Charles] Oakley and [Dennis] Rodman are relentless, rebounding fools who take pride in that," said Larry Brown, the Indiana Pacers' coach. "But at center, you don't find guys who are rebounding fools on both ends. Most of the great rebounding centers have been defensive rebounders, like [Bill] Russell and [Wilt] Chamberlain. Moses was an offensive-rebounding center, which was kind of unique."
"You knew he was coming and, half the time, you couldn't stop him anyway," said Sixers assistant coach Jeff Ruland, who was traded for Malone in 1986.
"He still starts to rebound just before he shoots," said former NBA coach Bill Fitch.
A child star
Malone developed his brute style of play on the playgrounds of Petersburg, just south of Richmond. It ultimately enabled him to free his mother, Mary, from her $100-a-week grocery-packing job and move her out of their house with the ramshackle steps and old milk crate as a living-room coffee table.
At age 14, Malone had written on a piece of paper that he wanted to be a pro by 19. He put the paper in his Bible. College recruiters who flocked to see the eerily quiet teen-ager and expected to find an easy mark were surprised. Malone had unerring instincts. He repelled a sales pitch from Oral Roberts, who reportedly offered to heal his mother's ulcer if Moses attended the college. And he left an apoplectic Maryland coach Lefty Driesell at the altar to sign a five-year deal for approximately $1 million with the ABA Utah Stars before the 1974-75 season.
The prophecy was fulfilled, but Moses was a child - albeit a special one - among men.
"People who saw him at that time said what a skinny kid he was. He probably weighed 210 at most," said Bucky Buckwalter, who won the wooing war and was Malone's first coach with Utah. "Watching him on the floor, you could tell he was something special, that he had a nose for the ball. . . . I thought it would be difficult for him. Going from [predominantly black] Petersburg, Virginia, to Salt Lake City is a culture shock that would be tough for anyone. But from Day 1, he fit in."
The basketball transition was incredibly smooth, too. Maybe it was because Malone had a wise-beyond-his-years approach that other high school-to-pro phenoms such as Darryl Dawkins and Bill Willoughby lacked. Or maybe it was simply that he willed himself to be a star.
"Coming out of high school, I had an attitude. I wasn't afraid," Malone said. "I loved a challenge. That's why I became a player. Not a superstar; a player. I always thought I was No. 1. I loved the contact, which is the way I learned on the playground."
Critics wrong
"I remember people were saying that he's not physical at all," said Brown, who was Denver's coach during Malone's ABA debut season. "He got 32 rebounds the first time we played them. I had to laugh and I said, `There goes that myth.' "
Still, the NBA wasn't so sure about Malone at the time of the dispersal draft. In fact, the Trail Blazers, already blessed with Bill Walton at center, picked Malone with the intention of dealing him to Buffalo for a draft pick before training camp ended. Malone also went from the Braves (now the Los Angeles Clippers) to the Rockets before 1976-77 was over.
"Everyone was saying he won't make it," Brown said. "I always heard so many things about what he couldn't do, instead of harping on what he could do. Like a lot of ABA kids, who got a chance to play when they were very young, he just kept getting better and better."
And bigger and stronger, because of the way he pushed himself. Malone relentlessly subjected his body to hour after hour of conditioning in the days before weights were the rage.
"Look at the old pictures of him," said Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich, Malone's former teammate in Houston. "His body really changed. Back then, we didn't have strength coaches and people like that. He wasn't a guy who flaunted his work habits. I used to go to the same health club as him. The people there were telling me, `He comes in at 7 a.m., before anyone else.' "
A winner
It always has been about working and winning.
"When I played with Moses, he wasn't a very good free-throw shooter until the last two minutes. But he always buried those big ones you needed to win," said Mike Dunleavy, Malone's teammate with the Rockets and later his coach with the Bucks. "And he was a pretty clutch outside shooter, too."
There was a run to the NBA Finals with the Rockets in 1980-81 and, finally, the deal that allowed Malone to flee Houston for Philadelphia as a free agent. Because his addition resulted in the departure of popular Caldwell Jones, some Sixers were unsettled by Malone's arrival. However, Cunningham knew that a nucleus of Erving, Maurice Cheeks and Bobby Jones wasn't enough, that Malone was the missing ingredient.
"One of the things we were missing was physical presence," Cunningham said. "Moses added a lot more than that, but we thrived on that. After a few days of training camp, he was embraced by his teammates. He didn't say a lot, of course, but he had a presence. When he said, `Let's go. It's time to turn it up a notch,' they did."
Late in that 1982-83 season, while he received treatment for a sore knee, Malone made his famous, typically terse playoff prediction of "Fo, fo, fo" to Cunninngham, suggesting the Sixers would require only the minimum number of postseason games to win their title. "He was off by one game," Cunningham said.
Now, more than a decade later, Malone is back in Philly in a backup role, averaging 7.0 points and 5.4 rebounds going into the weekend. He has slowed noticeably, but still is contributing and teaching yet another generation the simple and harsh secrets of how to claim the paint.
"He has that intangible toughness, the `winningness' the superstars have," Carter said. "It's uncanny the things he is still able to do at 38. It's unbelievable. It's really a treat to watch. When you're a superstar, you can lose your speed and your quickness, but your savvy just increases."
"It's amazing he's been able to compete this long," Dunleavy said.
"I'm not surprised he's still playing," said former Rockets teammate Calvin Murphy. "I'm just surprised he is not playing more minutes."
Nobody will have to tell Malone it's time to go once he senses the inner fire that has made him so special and so relentless for so many years no longer burns within.
"Once I lose interest, it's over," Malone said recently. "I don't want to be around just trying to get a check. I want to produce. I want to deserve to get paid."
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