Karl Malone wins Legend of the Year at NBA Legends Brunch

[NZB2323]

Nobody deserves to be 'canceled'. That's mob justice. You have the justice system to sort out people like Karl. Sometimes it fails, but it's not the job of the rest of us to dish out mob justice.

OK, so maybe 'nobody' is a strong word. Some people probably deserve to be canceled. But I think we need a Ted Bundy or Harvey Weinstein threshold or it's going to get slippery really fast.

I think you can argue that what Malone did was worse than what Weinstein did.

I don't really think you can. Doesn't absolve Malone of what he did, but Weinstein has over 100 sexual assault accusations, and dozens of outright rape allegations. That's just what's out there. We're talking about a man who committed these crimes over the course of decades. He's not a man that committed a rape. He's a serial rapist that committed rapes over and over as routine. He would have continued committing these crimes until dead had he not been convicted.

Were any of his victims children?

[Cavsfansince84]

And lmao @ Kobe raping a girl.

Puhlease.

Complete money grab by a mentally ill opportunist.

Imagine how pathetic you'd have to be to white knight for that one.

Oof!

It'd be easier to lmao off at the idea of it if Kobe hadn't reportedly given her $1-2 mil to settle and having done that also lost out on a ton more in endorsement money. In short, Kobe knew there would be repercussions to paying her off but still decided it was his best course of action rather than go through the full civil suit and leave it in the hands of a judge or jury. Do I think he raped her? I have no idea but I think it was gray enough that even Kobe had doubts about his innocence. To say otherwise is sort of white knighting for Kobe tbh.

[Knightfall]

I think you can argue that what Malone did was worse than what Weinstein did.

I don't really think you can. Doesn't absolve Malone of what he did, but Weinstein has over 100 sexual assault accusations, and dozens of outright rape allegations. That's just what's out there. We're talking about a man who committed these crimes over the course of decades. He's not a man that committed a rape. He's a serial rapist that committed rapes over and over as routine. He would have continued committing these crimes until dead had he not been convicted.

Were any of his victims children?

Yes.

[cam24thomas]

Deleted per request of user.

[step]

I did a quick Google and could not find any real context for this award, just so odd given that it usually accompanied with a general spiel of highlights of said actions etc.

Last year we had:

Plenty of league greats were in attendance for the event put on by the National Basketball Retired Players Association at the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland, but three legends were especially honored for their work off the court.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar accepted the NBA Legends Social Justice Award, Jerry West received the Legend of the Year Award and Dikembe Mutombo got the Global Ambassador Award.

Obviously don't have to search too hard to find Kareem's and Dikembe's work in those fields... but for Malone. The only thing I could find on Karl Malone philanthropy in 2022, was partnering with a local NGO in the Philippines.

And coincidentally they gave another award, 'Hometown Hero' to ... John Stockton. Wow, they must of searched high and low for award recipients this year.

Hope more of the media other than RollingStone call them out on this.

[KGtabake]

Do you like Woody Allen films?
He has been awarded for some of them, he has been nominated for almost all of them. He got married to his stepdaughter.
Do you like Lovecraft's books? He's the greatest horror writer of all time. His books will be read forever. He was a racist. A bad one.
How about Polanski? He has made some iconic films. Nominated, awarded. He cannot return to the States after what happened. He can't be forgiven.
Still all the above people (and many more i suppose) are been celebrated. Legends on their fields.

That doesn't mean we like them as people. That we forgive them or whatever. The official reason for their decorations is that they're been awarded for their craft. No matter if you agree with this or not, it has always been like this.
Karl Malone is a legend on this sport. He's been awarded for this.
The NBA is doing what he always does. They don't care. Just like the Oscars.
I don't understand the surprise for some of you.

[Knightfall]

I did a quick Google and could not find any real context for this award, just so odd given that it usually accompanied with a general spiel of highlights of said actions etc.

Last year we had:

Plenty of league greats were in attendance for the event put on by the National Basketball Retired Players Association at the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland, but three legends were especially honored for their work off the court.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar accepted the NBA Legends Social Justice Award, Jerry West received the Legend of the Year Award and Dikembe Mutombo got the Global Ambassador Award.

Obviously don't have to search too hard to find Kareem's and Dikembe's work in those fields... but for Malone. The only thing I could find on Karl Malone philanthropy in 2022, was partnering with a local NGO in the Philippines.

And coincidentally they gave another award, 'Hometown Hero' to ... John Stockton. Wow, they must of searched high and low for award recipients this year.

Hope more of the media other than RollingStone call them out on this.

I know after Katrina happened Malone was down there with his tractor comoany doing stuff in the area. I'm not aware of much else though.

[jokeboy86]

And lmao @ Kobe raping a girl.

Puhlease.

Complete money grab by a mentally ill opportunist.

Imagine how pathetic you'd have to be to white knight for that one.

Oof!

It'd be easier to lmao off at the idea of it if Kobe hadn't reportedly given her $1-2 mil to settle and having done that also lost out on a ton more in endorsement money. In short, Kobe knew there would be repercussions to paying her off but still decided it was his best course of action rather than go through the full civil suit and leave it in the hands of a judge or jury. Do I think he raped her? I have no idea but I think it was gray enough that even Kobe had doubts about his innocence. To say otherwise is sort of white knighting for Kobe tbh.

I loved Kobe and when the trial was going on when I was young I was one of those fans hoping that the woman’s name came out and all her business would get out in the open for everyone to see just so Kobe could go free and play. But now that I’m older and I dont just see things from a rabid entertainment fan and I’m willing to also see things from other perspectives the details of the case really dont bode well for Kobe. And when I was young I either didnt care about Kobe’s apology or didnt read it but as an adult reading it all I can think of is if somebody accused me of something so heinous and tried to put me in prison for something I didnt do I damn sure am not apologizing or saying I could see how she thought it wasnt. I dont care what my legal team or management advises

[Knightfall]

Do you like Woody Allen films?
He has been awarded for some of them, he has been nominated for almost all of them. He got married to his stepdaughter.
Do you like Lovecraft's books? He's the greatest horror writer of all time. His books will be read forever. He was a racist. A bad one.
How about Polanski? He has made some iconic films. Nominated, awarded. He cannot return to the States after what happened. He can't be forgiven.
Still all the above people (and many more i suppose) are been celebrated. Legends on their fields.

That doesn't mean we like them as people. That we forgive them or whatever. The official reason for their decorations is that they're been awarded for their craft. No matter if you agree with this or not, it has always been like this.
Karl Malone is a legend on this sport. He's been awarded for this.
The NBA is doing what he always does. They don't care. Just like the Oscars.
I don't understand the surprise for some of you.

When talking about Malone, I do separate the player ie... 3rd all time leading scorer great rebounder, possibly greatest PF of all time, from the person ie... dead beat father that didnt take care support or acknowledge his kids and child rapist scum bag.

[D.Brasco]

Do you like Woody Allen films?
He has been awarded for some of them, he has been nominated for almost all of them. He got married to his stepdaughter.
Do you like Lovecraft's books? He's the greatest horror writer of all time. His books will be read forever. He was a racist. A bad one.
How about Polanski? He has made some iconic films. Nominated, awarded. He cannot return to the States after what happened. He can't be forgiven.
Still all the above people (and many more i suppose) are been celebrated. Legends on their fields.

That doesn't mean we like them as people. That we forgive them or whatever. The official reason for their decorations is that they're been awarded for their craft. No matter if you agree with this or not, it has always been like this.
Karl Malone is a legend on this sport. He's been awarded for this.
The NBA is doing what he always does. They don't care. Just like the Oscars.
I don't understand the surprise for some of you.

I get the separate the art from the artist mentality but that doesn't mean you keep honoring the "artist". You don't have to tear down his statue in front of the arena but you don't have to invite him to any new honors either.

And yes Hollywood was really late to it but things have changed somewhat.

[cam24thomas]

Do you like Woody Allen films?
He has been awarded for some of them, he has been nominated for almost all of them. He got married to his stepdaughter.
Do you like Lovecraft's books? He's the greatest horror writer of all time. His books will be read forever. He was a racist. A bad one.
How about Polanski? He has made some iconic films. Nominated, awarded. He cannot return to the States after what happened. He can't be forgiven.
Still all the above people (and many more i suppose) are been celebrated. Legends on their fields.

That doesn't mean we like them as people. That we forgive them or whatever. The official reason for their decorations is that they're been awarded for their craft. No matter if you agree with this or not, it has always been like this.
Karl Malone is a legend on this sport. He's been awarded for this.
The NBA is doing what he always does. They don't care. Just like the Oscars.
I don't understand the surprise for some of you.

I agree, Hollywood is where morals go to die.

[Flash4thewin]

By calling it adultery you completely proved his point. Both are and were scum bags.

All sexual assault charges were dropped. Gotta love how we went from "innocent until proven guilty" to "guilty even when declared innocent".

They were dropped cause the victim didn’t want to testify after everything she had already endured.

Read the police reports where she gives a detailed account on how Kobe refused to let her leave his room, repeatedly physically intimidated her, how Kobe lied to the police trying to claim he hadn’t even had sex with her. When confronted she had already been examined, he then changed his story that he did have sex with her, when confronted she has bruising, he revealed he always has rough sex with a mistress, read about how he decided to say shaq always pays this off with money and cars and has spent over $1 mil doing so.

Innocent until proven guilty is great an all, but it’s important to recognize an environment where victims can be intimidated and asked to sacrifice the life they had, and how that can affect their willingness to continue to subject themselves to the hurt by testifying in a public setting.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/kobe-bryants-disturbing-rape-case-the-dna-evidence-the-accusers-story-and-the-half-confession

The victim didnt testify because she got a 7 figure "settlement" offer. Take what you for from that. If the same thing happened today he would be toast, it was a different time back then. Same thing with Malone, he does that in todays world and he's in jail.

[UglyBugBall]

I think you can argue that what Malone did was worse than what Weinstein did.

I don't really think you can. Doesn't absolve Malone of what he did, but Weinstein has over 100 sexual assault accusations, and dozens of outright rape allegations. That's just what's out there. We're talking about a man who committed these crimes over the course of decades. He's not a man that committed a rape. He's a serial rapist that committed rapes over and over as routine. He would have continued committing these crimes until dead had he not been convicted.

Were any of his victims children?

I just told you one guy rapes dozens of women. Maybe more.

Does it really matter how old the victims were?

He literally assaulted or raped hundreds of them. I don't care if they were all in hospice, that's hundreds of lives.

[Capn'O]

Being honest, I generally lean towards being more forgiving about past transgressions, but the dude effectively raped a twelve year old. Really not much ambiguity, it is pretty unbelievable that the NBA brought him back for anything.

I have a tough time with what to do about Malone. I typically come down pretty hard on domestic issues... Bryn Forbes, for example should have the book thrown at him... I'm pretty miffed Bridges didn't see any time... but this **** was like 40 years ago. What happened was horrible. Malone should have gone to jail for a long time, full stop. But he didn't. Karl Malone's career shouldn't have happened. But it did. And in 40 years there really hasn't been anything else. He's just this old hillbilly dude who likes to hunt.

So I tend to leave him be and focus on moving the justice system forward from that time. What does seeking justice or canceling him now do? Everyone involved seems to have moved on.

That said, giving him any sort of award does seem a little off.

[axeman23]

Imagine comparing adultery to a 20 year old man impregnating a 13 year old child. Go away.

Didn’t Kobe himself admit afterwards that it wasn’t consensual?

I thought Kobe always maintained that it was consensual but because of the power dynamic that he could understand how it might not have been consensual from her perspective? Maybe I'm wrong, but thats what I remember.

So, "it was consentual, "but might not have been from her perspective"? Of COURSE Kobe consented to banging her, but u DO kind of need BOTH parties to consent, right?

[EmperorLocky]

Would have been awesome if the guy that did the envelope dunk instead of showing 50 on the letter it said "Karl Malone raped a 12yo".

Wonder what score Karl would have given.

[Clyde Frazier]

I happen to watch the legends brunch every year (it's always on NBA TV Sunday afternoon of AS weekend). It's one of my favorite events as it celebrates the history of the game with a bunch of all time greats there.

Watching Walton's speech about Malone was flat out uncomfortable. Especially praising him as a good person off the court. What's especially disturbing about Malone's past is that he refused to pay child support to that *girl* after she had the baby. And yes this is when he was more than financially stable as an NBA player. Finally a court intervened and made things right.

Walton also oddly took jabs at Kareem and Dr J implying that they grew up wealthy, which I'm pretty sure isn't true. Even if it is, why say that? It was flat out awkward and ruined what is usually a really positive event.

[Optms]

Its 2023 and haters still believe Kobe raped that girl. Evidence points one way but they'll believe whatever they want.

[ghillphx]

Kobe's death was only 3 years ago. I saw how most of you behaved and continue to behave when anyone brings up what happened in Denver.
Those NBA fans should stop embarrassing themselves by talking about Karl Malone. Most of you have no right to do it.

HAHAHAHA way different. WAY DIFFERENT.

[NZB2323]

I don't really think you can. Doesn't absolve Malone of what he did, but Weinstein has over 100 sexual assault accusations, and dozens of outright rape allegations. That's just what's out there. We're talking about a man who committed these crimes over the course of decades. He's not a man that committed a rape. He's a serial rapist that committed rapes over and over as routine. He would have continued committing these crimes until dead had he not been convicted.

Were any of his victims children?

I just told you one guy rapes dozens of women. Maybe more.

Does it really matter how old the victims were?

He literally assaulted or raped hundreds of them. I don't care if they were all in hospice, that's hundreds of lives.

Maybe it’s because I’m a parent, but raping a child seems way worse to me.