Good seats still available...

Listen up sports fans, it's Karl Malone retirement night on March 23rd in Utah!

Excited? Me neither.

Plenty of good seats still available.

I never liked Malone. Sure he's one of the greatest 50 players of all-time, and, along with the man on my bedroom wall, Kevin McHale, the definition of a modern power forward. But there's something that always said "dirtball" to me.

Plus, he's a loser. OK, sure he was unfortunate to play in Michael Jordan's prime, but conventional wisdom says you need two superstars (Malone and John Stockton), solid role players (Jeff Hornacek and Bryon Russell) and servicable size in the middle (Greg Ostertag. Before you go laughing, look at who Jordan had playing in the middle -- Bill Cartwright, Luc Longley, Bill Wennington, etc. That does assume you count Horace Grant as a power forward, which I do). He got beat in '96-'97 -- the year he won his first MVP -- and again in '97-'98, both times in 6 games, both times by the Bulls. The best part is that Jordan should have been MVP in '96-'97, knew it, and murdered the Jazz in the finals.

The final nail in the coffin was when he went to the Lakers in 2004, searching for that elusive ring. Let's just say the Lakers' implosion was especially satisfying that year. I'm not critical, per se, of players who switch teams late in their career to try and win a ring. Even though I didn't want to, I felt happy for Ray Bourque when he finally won a Stanley Cup with Colorado (I remember calling my friend Joe that night and he was crying). But Malone on the Lakers is different. Not sure why, but it just felt different.

Jazz fans must feel the same way. Good for them.