Achilles had his heel. Karl Malone has his knee.
One of the most indestructible men in basketball history, facing months of rehabilitation from knee surgery with vitually no chance of meeting his self-imposed mandate of "100 percent" health next season, has decided to end his 19-year NBA career, several league sources said Wednesday.

"He's totally at peace with his decision," one said.

Malone spent Tuesday in a Southern California hospital, undergoing surgery to patch up the medial meniscus in his right knee, cartilege torn during Game 2 of last month's NBA Finals. The injury, aggravated when Malone played Games 3 and 4 despite the pain, is more serious than the avulsion he suffered in the same knee in December. That condition kept Malone, who missed just six games in 18 seasons with the Utah Jazz due to injury or illness, out of 39 Lakers games last season.

It was also the reason Malone declared, after the Lakers fell to Detroit 4-1 in the Finals, that "I'll have to be 100 percent, not 95, not 99," in order to return for a 20th season.