Mailman Delivers on the Air

While fellow NBA players are sitting around waiting for the league’s lockout to be resolved, Utah Jazz forward Karl Malone began a new job Monday as a sports talk-show host on AM 1150.

Malone, who has spent much of the off-season in Southern California after signing with Los Angeles agent Dwight Manley, will work five days a week with Vic “the Brick” Jacobs, who has hosted the 1-3 p.m. show since the station went to an all-sports format in March 1997.

“This is the first time someone has ever approached me to do a show,” Malone said. “It’s kind of amazing but just because I’ve been in Utah and I’m doing a show here, people question what I’m doing. . . . I’ve always said if the right opportunity came up in radio or TV, I would do it. But I wasn’t going to go up to people and [ask for a chance]. It’s ironic that people want to talk about this but I’ve been in Utah for 13 years and they’ve never come to me.”

Tom Boman, the station’s sports director, said Malone’s hiring stems from an interview Jacobs had with Malone earlier this month.

“Mike Thompson, our operations manager, offered Karl the job on the air, and Karl said he’d think about it,” Boman said. “The hiring is for as long as the lockout continues. He’ll continue to be our NBA correspondent after that.”

Because Malone, 35, has one year remaining on his contract with the Jazz and has been outspoken about playing for a contending team with a dominant center, it would be easy to assume that his decision to host an afternoon talk show in Los Angeles is more a leverage move than a career one.

But that’s not the case, Malone said. He didn’t deny to callers that he would like to play with Shaquille O’Neal and the Lakers but he said that there isn’t a secret agenda to force the Jazz to trade him.

“I don’t have a leverage move, I’m Utah’s to lose,” said Malone, who has led the Jazz to the NBA finals only to lose to Chicago the last two seasons. “Why do I need leverage? It’s not like I have to go out and get 30 points and 10 rebounds to prove a point. A lot of people are afraid to discuss things like this because they are afraid of the repercussions, but this is me and I’m doing my radio show. We’re locked out. What is wrong with us capitalizing on this by doing things we want to do?”

Starting today, Malone will get a chance to hear what fans in Utah think of his radio show because a Salt Lake City station will carry the program live.

“I didn’t do this to get nothing but the positive,” Malone said. “I know there’s negative. I know there are some hard feelings out there. But I guarantee you that there are some people out there who will call in and get a whole different respect for me because I will tell them what I think.”