In Land of Egos, Malone’s Is the Latest to Be Bruised

You can now add Karl Malone’s name to the list of big babies.

What a ridiculous story. I’m so tired of the whining and the crying of millionaires who feel disrespected.

Now we have Malone, throwing a tantrum because he heard Kobe Bryant had said something unsettling about him, the great Karl Malone, and so now Malone is going to take his old, run-down body somewhere else, anywhere else besides the Lakers, and so take that.

In fact, now we’re hearing from Malone’s agent, Dwight Manley, that Malone is 100% healthy, digging the knife deeper so everyone can feel the pain of losing Malone now that Bryant has disrespected him.

Malone is going to take his sneakers elsewhere, as we’re being told, because Karl “is furious,” his agent also telling Fred Roggin on KMPC (1540) radio that for Kobe “to say Karl is a distraction is not appropriate.”

I read Bryant’s comments from his radio interview on XTRA in the newspaper, and Bryant never used the word “distraction,” which would have been accurate, though, in describing Malone’s appearances this season at Staples Center.

The Lakers are a work in progress, and Malone has attended several Laker games, sitting at courtside directly across from the Laker bench ... the great savior waving to his former teammates. How distracting.

Listen to any coach or player talk about a teammate who has been injured or lost for a time, and as the old sports cliche goes, “We can only play with the guys we have and do the best we can.”

In so many words, Bryant said the same thing, although he did give us another ego overdose when he said, “[The players] are here giving me 110%.”

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PHIL JACKSON whined in a book. Shaquille O’Neal, the Big Pout, continues to carry on like a child sent to his (Miami) room without a pat on the back. Bryant remains immature and aloof in dealing with people. Gary Payton needed a binky, and with the nursery so full, I guess no one noticed Malone was no different.

For the most part everyone paid Malone homage, the proud superstar taking the pay cut for the noble pursuit of a ring, the one who also became the locker room peacemaker. A little too much peace-making grandstanding for me.

Now we learn that Malone is irate because the Lakers aren’t counting the hours until he returns. Boo-hoo.

And like a child who has been hurt and wants to strike back, his agent is making sure everyone knows it’s Bryant’s fault Malone won’t be back.

“This is a pretty emotional, traumatic thing,” Manley said, and I can just picture that big power forward who took no prisoners on the court, dabbing at his eyes because Bryant said the team must play on without looking over its shoulder.

Come on, the big baby is 41 years old, last seen hobbling on his last leg, and not much help, as far as I’m concerned, for a rebuilding Laker team.

I wouldn’t be surprised to learn later he used Bryant’s remarks as a way of getting out of L.A., the proud warrior taking his game to San Antonio or Minnesota. So there. He sat at courtside in Staples, and had to know after watching a few games that there was no ring to be won in L.A. with the little time he has left.

That aside, it’s obvious now the piling on Bryant is going to continue. His considerable ego, of course, is a magnet for such criticism, and his aloof attitude certainly makes him a tough athlete to embrace.

But the facts suggest that O’Neal requested a trade. He stays here, and maybe Bryant is gone, but O’Neal demanded to leave. Jackson priced himself out of the market, his way of leaving town, and then blamed his inability to take four future Hall of Famers and win another title on Bryant’s immaturity.

Payton self-destructed, and now we get Malone’s bruised ego. Malone’s final departure will be one more slap at Bryant, which will be welcomed by many, because Bryant is the last man standing on a team that is no longer a powerhouse.

A lot of people are upset by that, and Bryant is the easy target.

But you know what? They’re all just a big bunch of babies.

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ON THE Roger Lodge radio show Tuesday, Lodge made fun of ESPN radio host “Doug Klikorian” for referring to Dan Fouts’ late father only to have Fouts say he had just talked to his father.

Lodge told “Klikorian” to “clock in and do his homework.”

Maybe next time Lodge, who makes a point often of saying he has the only local morning show in town, will improve his local knowledge, and refer to Klikorian correctly as Doug Krikorian, former Herald Examiner, current Long Beach Press-Telegram sports columnist and one of Southern California’s best sportswriters for several decades.

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FORMER LOS Angeles Ram quarterback Jim Everett, somewhat of a phantom since being sacked -- and there’s a play on words and a nightmare reminder -- will appear on “Totally Football: QB Confidential,” on FSN West on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

Everett and the Rams fell to the San Francisco 49ers in the 1989 NFC title game, Everett falling to the ground untouched at one point, making the “phantom sack” part of Ram lore.

Everett, who in 1990 was the first Ram quarterback to be selected to a Pro Bowl since Pat Haden in 1977, has been running his own company in Rancho Santa Margarita the last five years, and is a registered investment advisor.

Warren Moon and Erik Kramer will join Everett for the Fox broadcast, and I hope one of them asks him what it was like to know that if he won a game, there was a good chance Georgia Frontiere was going to give him a victory kiss.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.