More than any other player in the NBA, Karl Malone knows what Shaquille O"Neal went through Saturday night.

For more than a decade, Malone was the premier low-post player in the NBA, taking a pounding -- and dishing it out -- for the Jazz on a nightly basis.

As Malone grew older and developed more of a perimeter game, it was Shaq who took over as the dominant player in the paint.

When Shaq finally snapped on Saturday night, the victim of flagrant fouls by two different players on the same play, he chased after Chicago"s Brad Miller with a wild roundhouse punch.

O"Neal barely grazed Miller but his intent to maim was obvious, drawing a three-game suspension from the league.

Malone said you never want to see what happened in Chicago, yet he understands what it"s like to be someone"s punching bag.

""I feel what he felt," Malone said of Shaq. ""I feel it because you"ve got guys who go out and do it.