Karl Malone is one of the best basketball players we’ve ever seen.
A 2x NBA MVP, the 2nd all-time leading scorer, 14x NBA All-Star.Multiple NBA All-Defensive
teams, a hall of famer and so on and so on.
He hasn’t won the NBA championship, which quite possibly is the only thing missing from
his basketball career.
But when the bright lights are gone and his basketball accomplishments are put away, there’s
a whole different person in front of us.
Hey guys.
PRPLPRNCH here and today I have the daunting task to tell you about the dark truth of Karl
Malone’s Personal Life.
Similar to many NBA players Karl Malone came from a rough background.
His parents divorced, and his mother raised him and eight other children alone, in Summerfield
Louisiana.
His father had another family and he was hardly present for anything in Malone’s life.
When Malone was only 3 years old, his father commited a suicide.
Karl was living a country lifestyle in the middle of nowhere.
Working on a farm, hunting and fishing.
He attended Summerfield High School and one of his passions was basketball, where he led
his basketball team to three consecutive Louisiana Class C titles.
After high school Malone enrolled at Louisiana Tech University.
During his college days, Malone fathered a child with a neighbor girl in his hometown.
The problem was that the girl
-Gloria Bell at the time was only thirteen years old.
Malone should’ve gone to jail, not NBA, but Summerfield was a small town and Gloria’s
parents didn’t want to be the ones who ruin the career of the local superstar.
Additionally they thought that it would be easier to get support for their grandchild
if Malone was playing basketball so nobody knew the situation at the time.
Malone though, denied his paternity and the situation escalated in 1986 during Malone’s
second season in the NBA.
Girl’s parents were forced to take Malone to the court requesting that he pay $200 per
week for child support.
Malone didn’t respond, and the judge ruled him the father of the child and ordered him
to pay $125 per week to the family plus medical expenses.
Malone thought that was too much money and they continued to battle in court for almost
three years until it was settled.
For context, during that period Karl Malone had made almost $3 million dollars just as
his salary from playing basketball and not including sponsorships and other deals.
Malone refused to take a DNA test up until 1996 when it was confirmed that he’s the
father of the child.
The child’s name as we now know was Demetress Bell, who was drafted to the NFL in 2008 and
played 5 seasons in the National Football League.
When Demetress Bell was asked about his father he responded: “I treat it as if my mother
went to the sperm bank.
I don’t hate him for not being in my life.
It made me a better person.”
When Demetress met his father for the first time, Malone told him that it was too late
for him to be his father and he’d have to make it on his own.
Well that’s a nice thing to say to your son when you meet him for the first time.
NOT.
Since then though their relationship has become better.
Malone has acknowledged that he was wrong and they’ve contacted each other but they
haven’t really bonded though.
Malone has always been shy about Demetress and never really wanted to develop any contact
with him, even though the DNA test show that it’s 99% probability that Demetress is his
child.
But Demetress wasn’t his first child.
When Malone was only 17 he impregnated another girl from his hometown - Bonita Ford.
This time, she at least wasn’t underage and this time instead of being a father of
one, he was the father of twins.
Which he obviously denied once again, up until 1998, when tabloid “The Globe” ran a story
on his paternity cases.
After the story came out Malone contacted his kids and accepted his paternity of the
Ford twins - Daryl and Cheryl.
Both were already 17 years old.
At the time Daryl said that it will be hard to get over what has happened but he believes
that together they will be able to forget the past.
And his daughter Cheryl shared the same positive vibe as well: “I’ve known about him my
whole life.
He talked to us and said that he wants to be our dad.”
Since then Malone has maintained a good relationship with the twins and says that he’s happy
that he can be with his children and grandchildren.
Both of his twins were athletes as well.
Cheryl is a 4x WNBA All-Star and a 3x WNBA champion and Daryl played college basketball
for a year.
His career didn’t took off.
In 2008 Jemele Hill wrote a column on ESPN.com abotu this subject.
A decade ago(1998), Malone and his wife -- with whom he has fathered four children -- spoke
at a conference on families and talked openly about the children Malone has fathered outside
of their marriage.
Of course, the Malones were talking about Daryl and Cheryl, not Demetrius.
Malone told the audience: "Everything I've been through, everything I'm about to go through
in my career and my life, if my family wasn't with me and didn't support me, it would be
really tough."
Karl Malone never really wanted to do anything with Demetress.
At least it seems that way, cause he’s never publicly spoken about him, tried to reach
him, be a good dad you know.
On the contrary, The Ford twins have developed a very good
relationship with Demetress Bell.
The three have gone fishing together, and Bell describes them as a tight-knit group.
Karl Malone has 4 more children with Kay Kinsey, the winner of the 1988 Miss Idaho USA pageant.
He’s been married to her since 1990.
The biggest question here though is, would Karl Malone ever recognize his twins if “The
Globe” didn’t write an article on him?
Would he ever try to contact them or just support them like fathers would have to do.
Was his ego that big or was he so ashamed of his children?
So as you see, Karl Malone has done some scumbaggy things during his NBA career, and if everything
would’ve gone how it should’ve, or according to law, maybe we would have been robbed of
one of the greatest players in NBA history.
But everything ended good for him, and for us as basketball fans as well.
The question here though is - does his great career and things he’s done since to make
up for all he’s done make him a good person?
Maybe he was that way because his own childhood was rough?
What do you think guys?
Is Karl Malone just a great basketball player and a scumbag person?
Are those the mistakes of a young person?
Whatever you have to say, please write it down in the comment section below.
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This was PRPLPRNCH, and I’m out!