Karl Malone has taken up writing as a hobby, jotting down his thoughts with a pen on paper. No computers for Mr. Old School.
He decided to become an author when he flew with his new team to Hawaii, where Malone knew something unprecedented and crazy was about to begin -- a traveling circus featuring fellow performers Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, Gary Payton and Phil Jackson.
It has begun, and it will be unique.
PHOTO: REUTERS
There has never been, nor might there ever be again, a team like the 2003-2004 Los Angeles Lakers.
"This is the kind of team, we can do everything perfect every day, and I don't think it's ever going to be normal in people's eyes," Malone said. "But I think it's going to be fun."
Maybe the best way to look at these Lakers is through Malone's eyes.
PHOTO: REUTERS
It's all new to him, and it's all new to everyone, really.
The NBA's most visible team is looking to reclaim the title the San Antonio Spurs took away last June, reloading with a pair of future Hall of Famers while also being confronted daily with a sobering and scary reality: One of their best, Bryant, is accused of rape and could end up in prison.
The Lakers will try to ignore it, but can they?
"I have no idea, just like nobody else does," San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. ``But considering the class of the players they have, the coaching staff and the organization, making it the best environment possible will be done.
"The other thing is, you know Kobe is a competitor, he's going through a hell of a tough time. But he's competitive."
Bryant, however, is looking anything but cheerful.
The stress he has endured, along with his recovery from shoulder and knee operations, has knocked out much of his muscle mass.
"Every day is a bad day," Bryant said last Saturday.
"You just kind of take the good with it. We'll get through this situation. Every storm has to end. The sunshine is a rainbow after every storm, so you just go along with it."
Bryant didn't play his first exhibition game until Oct. 23, and there's no chance he'll be in peak form for the start of the regular season Tuesday, at home against the Dallas Mavericks.
"It will be a sharp change. He's coming into the season obviously without the same amount of energy that he came in with last season," Jackson said. "He was geared up from the first of October to carry that load because he knew Shaq was going to be out until the middle of December. This is an entirely different deal for Kobe."
It's an entirely different deal for everyone else, too.
O'Neal reported for camp at a svelte 152.5kg, his lowest weight since 1995.
Payton, after wearing only a Seattle SuperSonics uniform for his first 12 1/2 seasons, now is wearing gold and purple just a few months after donning Milwaukee's green, purple and white. And then there's Malone, an amazing physical specimen at age 40.
When his mum died this summer and he left the US Olympic team to return home to rural Louisiana, he took his grief to the weight room -- 40 consecutive days of his grueling workouts, the details of which have been Malone's closely guarded secret for two decades.
He paints his toenails black these days, and he's taken up residence just five blocks from the ocean in the same town as Dennis Rodman.
Jackson will be only the third pro coach he has ever played for after spending his first 3 1/2 years under Frank Layden and the past 14 1/2 under Jerry Sloan, one of the most intense and focused NBA coaches ever.
"They're different, you know," Malone said, recounting a story of how Jackson had called the team into a huddle that night and turned over his clipboard. It read: "Never mind."
"Realize we know how serious this whole thing is. But coach Sloan would have never done that," Malone said.
Jackson, tied with Red Auerbach for most NBA championships (nine), tried to lighten the mood in Hawaii by having the team bond through a paintball fight.
Malone took it as a personal favor when O'Neal, despite a sore heel, agreed to play in the team's fifth exhibition game to lessen Malone's minutes.
Bryant has been chatty with Malone behind closed doors, while Payton has been more than chatty everywhere -- the same way the league's best trash-talker has been for 13 years.
Malone is taking it all in -- and taking notes.
This may be the last big ride of his life, and it's certain to be a wild one.
So fasten your seat belts: Shaq is driving, Karl is motoring, Gary is navigating and Kobe is cringing in the back seat.
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