Karl Malone and the Grand Slam of Sheep

There’s a book on the Dream Team coming out on July 10th by Jack McCallum, who writes for Sports Illustrated and who wrote ":07 Seconds or Less” and it’s incredible like you’d imagine. I got a sneak copy of it that I’ll share thoughts on about later. But as prep for the book’s publication, McCallum is doing a series of blog posts, yes blog posts, on the interviews with some of the all-time greats. I just had to share this with you because, honestly, well... From McCallum’s post on interviewing Karl Malone.

“What am I proudest of?” Malone ponders the question. “Probably getting the grand slam of sheep. In the hunting world, those four sheep would be the Super Bowl, the NBA championship, the World Series and the Stanley Cup all in one.”

(For the record, and I had to look this up, the Grand Slam is the Dall, the Stone, the Desert Bighorn and the Rocky Mountain Bighorn. As they stared down at me, they all looked the same, though I wouldn’t say that to their faces.)

“I don’t think there’s three thousand hunters got all four of them,” Malone says proudly. “And that’s going back to President Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt.”

via Jack McCallum | BEHIND THE INTERVIEWS: THE MAILMAN.

Second all-time in points, the second-best power forward of all time if you don’t count Tim Duncan as a center, a legend, a member of the best pick and roll combo in the sport’s history, and an Olympic Gold Medalist.

Sheep.

The NBA is really, really, really weird and that’s why it’s amazing.