The number came out of the blue, just as news of Malone’s death came out of the blue on Sunday. Sixty years old. It seems almost mathematically impossible for someone who became a pro basketball player so long ago (1974) and enjoyed a career that lasted 21 seasons. Put it this way: He played his last NBA game 20 years ago and still hadn’t reached the standard retirement age in the United States.
Then there’s the unfathomable cluster of death that has afflicted centers who played for the Philadelphia 76ers. Caldwell Jones died last Sept. 21, at age 63. Darryl Dawkins died last month, at 58.
“I was lucky enough to play with them and be around them,” said former Sixers point guard Maurice Cheeks. “We don’t take friendships like that for granted.”
Cheeks was still in bed Sunday morning when Andrew Toney, his old partner in the 76ers’ backcourt, called him with the news about Malone. Cheeks couldn’t quite take it in. Then his phone started buzzing with text messages about Moses. The media requests started coming next, and he needed more time to compose his thoughts. He had just been through this with Dawkins — losing Malone on top of it dealt him another blow while he was still staggering. After he gathered his thoughts, Cheeks decided he wanted to focus on the time they had together.
“Having been in their space and been around them and been in their life, I think that’s what we take out of it,” Cheeks said. “I look at it and think about them and think about the time I was around them.
“Moses brought us the championship. You can’t get better than that. But the fact that he was an unbelievable person and clearly one of the best payers ever to play, and he never acted like that at all.”
By the simple facts, Malone clearly was one of the best players to play, and it’s almost as if it took the examination of his career brought on by his death to remind us of that, in addition to some of his pioneering roles.
The numbers lead to the reminder that Malone came to the pros straight out of high school; he was 19 years old when he joined the Utah Stars of the ABA. Malone was a pioneer, something that’s easily lost to later generations that think of Kevin Garnett as the first preps-to-pros star.