He hasn't even passed Wilt Chamberlain yet, and already the talk has turned to moving ahead of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Can he? Does he even want to? Is he willing to do whatever it requires to become to leading the scorer in NBA history?
If it is to happen, it will take time — and a whole lot of circumstances falling into place.
So says Karl Malone, who goes into tonight's game against Toronto at the Delta Center needing just eight points to pass Chamberlain and settle into second place behind Abdul-Jabbar on the league's all-time points list.
"As long as I can be productive, as long as I can continue to demand a double-team and triple-team, I'm going to keep playing," said Malone, who has 31,412 points in his 1,208 regular-season games with the Jazz. "But, other than that, I have mixed emotions about the record. I really do because it's like, 'Some things are not meant to happen; some records are not meant to be broken; some guys are so big in what they do that I can't even imagine that.'
"But I'm not really thinking about the No. 1 spot. I'm just thinking about trying to stay healthy. If I can stay healthy, you know, who knows?"
Health is a huge factor in what Malone has already done, and what he continues to do. The Mailman has missed only three games in 16 seasons due to injury, an amazing run of durability and longevity.
But it will take more than a perfectly conditioned body to push Malone past Abdul-Jabbar, who scored 38,387 points in 1,560 games over 20 seasons with Milwaukee and the Los Angeles Lakers (Chamberlain scored his 31,419 in 1,045 games).
Over the weekend, Malone put some parameters on what will it take to keep him going.
"I'm not going to accept playing 10 or 15 minutes a night," he said, "and I'm not going to accept coming off the bench."
By Monday morning, around the same time he was named NBA Player of the Month for the seventh time in his career, Malone had added to the list: "I won't come off serious injury to do it."
Still, the temptation is certainly there to continue playing long enough to accomplish what it takes.
If he were to maintain his current career-average pace of 26 points per game, Malone would need 269 more games to move into first place. If he were to maintain his current season-average pace of 23.2, he would need 301.
Either way, it should take at least until some time midway or late in the 2003-2004 season — three after this one ends. By then, Malone will be 40 years old.
The time frame, though, is the least of his concerns.
"I've got two more (seasons after this) left on my contract," he said. "I didn't sign it not to finish it out.
"Nowadays, you average 10 or 15 points, and eight or nine rebounds, you're an All-Star. H---, I can do that until the cows come home. And then they you pay you for it. So why wouldn't I do that? You look at the contract guys get now for averaging 10 points a game, I would be kind of silly if I wouldn't consider playing.
"But, I have a standard. And I feel if I drop below that standard, I don't know if it's doing the team any good then."
The one thing Malone doesn't want to do is play too long — and, he says now, he won't do that, no matter how close he may be to Abdul-Jabbar's record.
But only Malone can be the true judge of when the right time is to say, 'That's enough.' He will know. At least he thinks he does.
"I hope so," Malone said. "I hope so. I hope I know that . . . I hope I understand 'when it is,' or know 'when it is,' because I don't want to stay around a year too long, or two years too long. So I'm hoping that I'll know.
"It mostly happens in boxing," he added. "I'm a big boxing fan . . . I'm watching the ESPN Classics now . . . And it kind of hurts me to see that.
"I hope I don't be that person I'm talking about."
All-time NBA Scoring Leaders
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 38,387
Wilt Chamberlain 31,419
Karl Malone 31,412
Michael Jordan 29,277
Moses Malone 27,409
E-MAIL: tbuckley@desnews.com