After 18 seasons in Utah, Karl Malone is taking his NBA championship aspirations to the Los Angeles Lakers.
     
It may not be the most graceful of exits, like the one retiring 19-year Jazz veteran John Stockton made last month: At a nearly full Delta Center, about 18,000 fans, NBA commissioner David Stern, several franchise officials and a few local politicians all paid the longtime point guard an emotional goodbye.
     
Malone's departure from Salt Lake, rather, is tinted with an element of awkwardness: He is not retiring but instead is leaving as a free agent for another team.