On a bright spring afternoon, with the snow-covered Wasatch mountains gleaming in the distance, Karl Malone needs no convincing that these are the happiest of times.
His team has the look of an NBA champion, and he has the look of an MVP. And with the Utah Jazz's practice over for the day, the power forward with the eye-popping biceps is on his way to lunch with his wife at the usual place, the Judge Cafe downtown."The fun has come back in it for me," he said. "Last year, it had sort of faded away."
In his 10th NBA season, Malone has found a number of reasons to love playing again, not the least of which is the best Jazz team he has ever had around him. With five games remaining, Utah already has tied a franchise record with 55 wins.
After a series of playoff disappointments, Malone and the Jazz finally believe they can do what they've never been able to despite winning 50 games in five of the last six seasons: advance beyond the conference finals and play for a title.
Malone - eight-time All-Star, member of the original Dream Team and future Hall of Famer with more than 21,000 career points - thirsts for a ring, but a summer of soul-searching and a season that's proved unexpectedly fulfilling has shown him he can be complete without one.
"For the first time in my career," he said, "I can actually say no matter what happens in the playoffs and the rest of the season, this is the first time in my career that I look at every guy on this team and every guy wants to win for the next guy.
"Sure, my ultimate goal to cap this year off would be a championship. But being around the guys that I've been around has given the satisfaction of playing again."
So much so that for the first time since 1988-89, when he averaged 29.1 points and 10.7 rebounds, Malone is a legitimate candidate for the league's most valuable player award. He's fourth in the NBA in scoring (26.5), 10th in shooting percentage (54 percent) and 11th in rebounding (10.4), all while playing on a sprained right ankle that has bothered him since March.
"Karl has played extremely well for us on both ends of the floor," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "He's scoring points and rebounding, as usual, but he's also been a better defender than ever before."
Even though he and the Jazz have won consistently, Malone never has finished better than a distant third in MVP balloting. Part of the reason may be that Malone shares the spotlight with one of the best point guards ever to play the game.
"Stockton and myself are connected at the head for our careers, and that's not a bad guy to be connected with," Malone said. "If that's the reason I'm not getting it, great."
What could make the difference this time is that Malone is surrounded by a team of surprising chemistry and talent. He and Stockton, leading the league in assists for the eighth straight season, are complemented by shooting guard Jeff Hornacek, and role players such as forwards Antoine Carr, languishing as a free agent when the Jazz picked him up during the preseason, David Benoit, enjoying his best season after completing alcohol rehabilitation, and Adam Keefe, whose play off the bench has helped make up for the loss of center Felton Spencer in January.
"These are guys other teams gave up on that the Jazz gave a chance," Malone said.
"In years past, I felt every big game we won we were overachievers. I look at this team now, and we're not overachievers. We have a good team. I look at myself and Stockton, and we don't think we're bigger than the rest of the team."
That's not how it was at the end of last season, after the Jazz were eliminated by Houston in five games of the conference finals. Malone publicly criticized Utah's management for not being aggressive in improving the team and said he wouldn't mind being traded to a contender.
Suddenly, a player who had missed only four games in his career was considering retirement. It was one of the things he and his wife, Kay, discussed during a summer that Malone, 31, calls a personal crossroads.
"I sat down and said, `Do I want to do this again?' I was either going to play and give it my all, or I wasn't going to play," he said. "I've got a wife and two beautiful little daughters, but there was something that was a little empty there."
Among the things gnawing at Malone, the youngest of nine children growing up in Louisiana, was his increasingly distant relationship with his siblings.
"When I first got drafted, we were really, really close. All of the sudden you sign a big contract, and you do something for one brother and you don't do something for a sister, and then it starts causing animosity."
He began rebuilding his family ties by taking two of his brothers on a fishing trip to Alaska's Kenai Fjords National Park. While fishing for salmon in frigid streams, he rediscovered his love for his family - and felt ready to play basketball again.
"When I got back and went to training camp, the first day it was just a different aura about the team, a different attitude with the guys," he said.
Now Malone has gone from weighing retirement to wanting to sign a contract extension that would keep him with the Jazz for another four or five years, allowing him to spend his entire career with the same team.
"If these guys stay intact, I want to continue to play," he said. "It's brought me back that fire and desire to play again that I was sort of losing."