Karl Malone's $20M demand

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

A precedent that Malone (age 35) is probably looking at is the huge contract 
that Ewing got at a similar age. Everyone seems to assume that players will 
fall apart in their early thirties but Malone is superbly conditioned and 
had a better season this year than last, when he was MVP. I think he's missed 
something like 5 games in his career and consistently plays 35-40 minutes
per night. At the end of his current contract, I would not be surprised if
he still has two or three dominating seasons left.

Malone was also mentioning some sort of under-the-table agreement with the
Jazz owner so perhaps he has been promised a big payoff. I can't see how any
other team could give him $20M (just as no other team could have paid Jordan
$30M) unless something drastic happens in the new bargaining agreement, so
it looks to me like he's just posturing to get his payoff from the Jazz.
In any case, Malone has another season to try to take his team to the 
championship as the probably favorite (assuming Jordan retires). I can't
imagine the Jazz not paying him if they win a championship.

Alex