In NBA history, the first place in the overall scoring list is Tiangou Abdul-Jabbar, and the perennial second place is Malone, who was recently surpassed by James. Although Malone has not won a championship once in his 19-year career, he has almost all the honors he deserves except for the championship ring, MVP, All-Team, All-Star, etc., but there is one honor that makes Malone as unattainable as the championship, that is, the scoring champion.
Malone scored 36,928 career points, and in four of his 19 seasons with the Jazz he was close to the scoring champion, but never reached the top, finishing second at most each time, so who did he lose to?
The first time, in the 88-89 season, Malone averaged 29.1 points, 10.7 boards and 2.7 assists per game, and Jordan, the scoring champion, averaged 32.5 points, 8 boards and 8 assists per game; the second time, in the 89-90 season, Malone averaged 31 points, 11.1 boards and 2.8 assists, and Jordan averaged 33.6 points, 6.9 boards and 6.3 assists per game, and the scoring king once again fell into Jordan's hands.
The third time, in the 90-91 season, Malone averaged 29 points, 11.8 boards and 3.3 assists per game, and the scoring leader was still Jordan, averaging 31.5 points, 6 boards and 5.5 assists per game; the fourth, in the 96-97 season, Malone averaged 27.4 points, 9.9 boards and 4.5 assists per game, and Jordan averaged 29.6 points, 5.9 boards and 4.3 assists per game to win the scoring champion. Malone was so unlucky, scoring second four times, and the scoring champion was taken by Jordan. The Finals also met Jordan twice, and the Bulls earned twice as much salary as the Jazz.
The Jazz have a salary of more than 4.5 million stars and Marlon alone, and the Bulls have four annual salaries of 4.5 million or more. The previous bird rights did no count of salary caps, which was a big disservice to the civilian team Jazz. Malone power forward is still outstanding. It can be said that in the era of center and power forward, Karl Malone has no absolute suppressor except for losing to Jordan, the offense is full, and the defense can give 8.5 points, second only to Duncan in the history of power forwards.
Malone was indeed born in the wrong era, you know, Jordan retired in the middle of the year and a half and the end of his career in the Wizards if ignored, he really only played 11 years, 10 scoring champions, 5 MVPs, 6 championships and 6 FMVP, how terrifying, and Jordan's other superstars in the same class, only Olajuwon is relatively the most "lucky".
Without Jordan, Malone would have risen to at least the top five in history, Malone would have won five scoring champions plus two championships, there would be one more regular season MVP, two FMVPs, he would not go to the Lakers in his later years, with his physical state at that time, he could play at least two more seasons, that would be the all-time scoring king, plus these honors, the historical status would be too much, and he might become the best power forward in history.
Without Jordan, Olajuwon would have added one more rookie of the best and a scoring champion on top of the existing honors; The 91 championship will be the Lakers, the Magic officially crowned the first person in history; In '92 the Knicks would reach the Finals and eliminate the Trail Blazers to win the championship.
In 93, the Knicks will still enter the Finals against Barkley's Suns, and whoever wins the championship is possible, of course, Barkley may not be far away from Phoenix, and will fight with the Ewing Pig in the East, and both may win the championship; In the '96 finals, Magic vs. Supersonics, the Magic had a 60% chance of winning the championship; In the '97 Finals the Jazz beat the Heat to win the championship, and in the '98 Finals Pacers played the Jazz, and the Jazz had a 60% chance of winning the championship.
Without Jordan, the Pistons may face off against the Magicians again, and if the Lakers win, it will be the best in NBA history! If the pistons win, the piston dynasty will be achieved! Without Jordan, Drexler would definitely be in the top five in the shooting guard rankings! Without Jordan, O'Neal might not have traveled west to the Lakers, and the Magic might have ruled the late nineties!
If there is no Jordan, the era of center strikers will continue, the era of defenders may be far away, and the nineties will be spring and autumn warring countries, and hundreds of schools of thought will contend! It's only because of Jordan that we see King's Landing! We see solipsism! We saw a different kind of basketball! Salute! Great Michael Jordan!