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Karl Malone and Kobe Bryant don’t get along. That much seems clear after Malone’s interview with Huff Post Live today in which he details the problems the two have had since playing with each other (on the Lakers) in 2004. At issue are comments Malone allegedly made about Kobve’s wife, Vanessa Bryant, comments he has vehemently denied over the years.
Asked if there could have been a misunderstanding, Bryant said, “What he said is what he said. I believe in my heart that it wasn’t a misunderstanding. My wife wasn’t going to stand for it. She felt uncomfortable being around him to the point that she felt she had to call his wife and tell her.”
At the time Malone said he didn’t want to be involved in Kobe’s soap opera, didn’t want “Hollywood” in his life. So everyone moved on, or so we thought…
“We had a little issue,” Malone told host Marc Lamont Hill. “I don’t hold grudges … I love Westerns. I’m old-school Western. Back in the day, when you had a beef, you didn’t go get guns and knives … we just go back in the back with no cameras and knuckle up. Get it over with.”
Hill pressed Malone if he offered Bryant that route to resolution.
“It’s a standing offer,” Malone said. “Look, I don’t want no trouble. I don’t have a problem. People say whatever they want to say and that’s great. I’m 6-9, 272 [pounds] to be exact. I’m not hard to find. I don’t want no trouble. But if something got to go down, I’m not playing fair.”
That’s the passive-aggressive way of saying “wanna fight?” Given Kobe’s maladies and “old age”, Malone’s an overwhelming favorite for a 1st round KO, right?
