Nope, not what I was saying. Rather, I was trying to say that if you watched those Finals series, you saw that Malone too easily wilted in the spotlight and under the immensity of the moment. He was not able to elevate his game. It was severely juxtaposed against Jordan. But I wouldn’t put Malone in the same category as other all-time greats who truly elevated their teams and rose to meet the moment. I’m sure I’m not the only one on here old enough to have watched those Finals series and can attest to this!
He doesn't really get put up there, does he?
I rarely see him mentioned in top 10s or top 15 of all time. Usually late teens or early to mid 20s.
Is that fair? Or do you think that is still too high?
Yeah, this is kinda what my initial point was when questioning the idea that Malone was "one of the most overrated athletes".
Overrated to me implies that the individual is generally perceived as being much better than they actually were. I don't think I've ever seen anybody of note list Karl Malone as a top 10 or top 15 player of all time.
About the biggest claim I've seen made with regularity is that Malone is a top three PF of all time - I think we must surely all acknowledge that this is a fair argument to make. We may not all agree that he is top 3, but at the very least we must surely agree that he's in the conversation and that the argument can be made.
Aside from Duncan (who mostly considered to be #1) who else is there that could be considered to be in the discussion for those #2 and 3 spots? I can think of Barkley, Dirk, Moses Malone, Kevin McHale, Kevin Garnett. Surely there must be fairly universal agreement that Karl Malone is around the level of those guys.
