Towering titan
Malone, NBA great and champ, dead at 60
MOSES MALONE, a man of few words and many rebounds, died Sunday. He was 60.
He was found dead in a Norfolk, Va., hotel room after he failed to show up for a charity golf outing. Police said there was no indication of foul play.
The “Chairman of the Boards” was the first player to come right out of high school into the pros, signing with the Utah Stars of the American Basketball Association when that league was at war with the NBA. But he made his name in the NBA, after the leagues’ merger.
He led an otherwise mediocre Houston Rockets team to the NBA Finals in 1981 and then later brought a championship to the Philadelphia 76ers as the Finals MVP.
Before that 1983 postseason began, Malone famously predicted the Sixers would sweep the three playoff series.
In a typically terse, colorful quote, Malone simply said, “Fo’, fo’, fo’,” meaning that Philly would win each series in four games. That comment infuriated opponents, but he was almost proved a prophet.
The Sixers beat the Knicks in four, the Bucks in five and the Lakers in four.
“His generosity, towering personality and incomparable sense of humor will truly be missed,” said 76ers CEO Scott O’Neil.
Malone, a thick-bodied, 6-foot-10 center, was impossible to budge in the paint. He led the NBA in rebounding six times, and finished his 20-year career in the league with an average of 20.6 points and 12.2 rebounds per game.
He was a three-time NBA MVP, a six-time NBA All-Star, and was voted among the league’s greatest 50 players.
His greatest accomplishment, no doubt, was winning the title with the Sixers, who had enormous talent but couldn't quite get over the hump to beat both the Celtics and Lakers.
Malone dominated that series against Los Angeles, though most fans celebrated the victory as Julius Erving’s one, long-deserved NBA championship. Erving, Maurice Cheeks and Bobby Jones had tried and failed to win in more aesthetically pleasing fashion, but clearly needed a Malone-like presence to handle the dirty work.
“It wasn’t pretty, but we got the job done,” Erving would say, after the triumph.
Malone ranks fifth among all players on the career rebound list with 16,212, and eighth in scoring with 27,409.
He was unusual in being such a well-traveled superstar. He played with Utah and St. Louis in the ABA; with Buffalo, Houston, Philadelphia, Washington, Atlanta and San Antonio in the NBA.
Asked once to rank his accomplishments, Malone was typically circumspect.
“My only concern was winning ballgames,” he said. “I’ll always be No. 1 to myself.”