Malone may never win a title, but it is undeniable that he has cemented a spot in NBA history as one of the game's all-time greats. Barring injury, he will break Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's all-time scoring record in a couple of years (and make no mistake, he will play until he does). If the U.S. team qualifies next summer for the 2004 Games, Malone will be a three-time Olympian, something no male basketball player has done. No one in his generation, save Michael Jordan, has accomplished so much. And Malone has fulfilled the promise he made to his grandfather, Leonard Jackson, when he was a teen-ager:

Whatever he did in life, he was going to work hard at it.