Karl Malone is weighing retirement from pro basketball after this season, and right now the scale is tilted that way.

The prospects of pursuing or defending a championship, the possibility of becoming the league's all-time leading scorer and another season of making a seven-figure salary aren't enough to counterbalance the emotions and shifting priorities caused by the death of his mother last summer.

Yes, the games give Malone, 40, a break from the grief. But there are still those lonely moments on the freeway to and from Staples Center when he has only his thoughts.

"I ain't going to lie, I have days that I tear up a lot," Malone said. "I don't feel like I've been shortchanged, but I feel like [there are] certain things I can control now and ? I'm not going to let days slip by [with] me wanting to do something that I'm not doing because of chasing the record or chasing something else."