Karl Malone once ranted about modern NBA players wanting to wear protective gear during games.
The NBA is an ever-changing league, and over the last few decades, fans have noticed a plethora of changes in the league. One of the biggest changes that fans have seen is most teams' increased usage of shooting 3-pointers. But apart from that, another huge change is the way that modern-day basketball is played in the NBA.
A couple of decades ago, the level of physicality was at an all-time high in the league. Many players tend to get into heated brawls and would get away with little fines or minimum suspension. But nowadays, that's not the case. Keeping that in mind, former NBA stars such as Utah Jazz legend Karl Malone cannot seem to fathom this change.
Malone was one of the best players of his generation and was obviously involved in several fights during his career.
Karl Malone Doesn't Believe In The Usage Of Protective Gear
Nowadays, staying fit and healthy is one of the biggest concerns of NBA players. Evidently, to protect themselves from injuries, they tend to use protective gear. However, this is something that Malone doesn't like and was pretty vocal about it.
Via KSL:
"I'm not concerned with your elbow pads, your knee pads, all of your garb and your full body armor. What do you need all that for? Our soldiers need that in Iraq and they're doing a hell of a job for us. Take all that off! We don't need that. What I need you to do is show up and be ready to play. That's it. I had one of my ‘bigs' today and he had body armor from his thigh to his neck. I ask him what he was doing and he said he was protecting himself. I said 'Who you protecting yourself [from]?' There's no sniper in this building! Man up! If you're hurt, see the trainer and play the game.
When I played, if you came out there with a sleeve on your elbow, I won't say 'I'm going to attack it,' but you're a wounded animal and I've got to take a stab at it. I like where we're at, but let's get rid of all that and play the game, encourage your teammates."
To be honest, former NBA players from the 1980s or the 1990s will never see eye-to-eye with modern NBA players. There is nothing wrong with it. At the end of the day, each era is different, and every player wants to defend their era. Karl Malone has certainly done that with this aggressive rant about current players using protective gear.
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