NBA legend and Hall of Famer Karl Malone was fileted and deep-fried on social media during his appearance at the NBA All-Star Weekend because of his heinous sexual indiscretions that involved a teen girl in the 1980s.
ESPN’s Bomani Jones, who now hosts the show “Game Theory With Bomani Jones,” excavated a long-buried secret about Malone, then a 20-year-old college sensation at Louisiana Tech in 1983. According to Rolling Stone magazine, Malone had impregnated his 13-year-old girlfriend Gloria Bell, but then denied paternity. Bell’s family decided to decline to press charges against Malone but instead sued Malone because he was about to be a multimillionaire, which came to fruition when he was drafted by the Utah Jazz.
Malone decided to settle out of court with the stipulation that he’d deny he was the father and the story quickly withered away. He was also a deadbeat to his son, Demetress Bell, who Malone only acknowledged when he was an adult and made it to the NFL.
"I hated Karl Malone so much before I had a great reason, I only had good ones: dirty player, elbowing people all the time…then we found out when he was in college he had a baby with a 12 year old.” @bomani_jones | @GameTheoryHBO
— David Astramskas (@redapples) February 19, 2023
Malone was also sued by a woman named Bonita Ford, who he had twins Daryl and Cheryl Ford with in 1980. Malone was reportedly held in contempt of court and agreed to another out-of-court settlement. He was also a deadbeat to the twins.
The irony was that the story refused to die altogether and sprang up in Malone’s life like weeds in the cracks of sidewalks. Daryl and Cheryl Ford were good enough to play basketball at Louisiana Tech, with Cheryl Ford enjoying a 10-year WNBA career and winning three championships with the Detroit Shock.
Malone eventually acknowledged his twins in 1998. Malone, according to Rolling Stone, said, “I didn’t handle it right; I was wrong… Father Time is the biggest thief out there and you can’t get it back.”
This is the reason for the intense backlash that Malone is getting because he agreed to be a judge during the NBA All-Star Slam Dunk Contest now that the festivities have returned to Salt Lake City. He is the third-leading scorer of all time and voted to the NBA Top 50 and Top 75 teams as one of the greatest ever.
Therein lies the quagmire that the league office finds itself in: how they agreed to let the retrobate of a man represent the NBA when he was the scourge of the league when he played.
his dunk woulda been so much better if in the envelope was an Arrest Warrant for Karl Malone https://t.co/mmPetdgKSH
— IcyVert (@IcyVert) February 19, 2023
Listen to the full report on Malone’s egregious sexual history along with more Twitter commentary on the gifted but flawed NBA superstar
https://twitter.com/PatBontheMic99/status/1627278998920126467
Karl Malone being a known pedophile and everybody just being like whatever is still crazy to me after all this time.
— ……. (@PrinceHAK33M) February 19, 2023
You can hear pen drop when bomani drop the Karl Malone info. Not shocking not many know much of a scumbag he is https://t.co/HjUYut7nwf
— Dairy Payton (@RickeyLawson) February 19, 2023
It’s so wild how the NBA still lets Karl Malone rock though he’s a known child molester/rapist.
— Frederick Joseph (@FredTJoseph) February 19, 2023
You can hear pen drop when bomani drop the Karl Malone info. Not shocking not many know much of a scumbag he is https://t.co/HjUYut7nwf
— Dairy Payton (@RickeyLawson) February 19, 2023
