Playboy Interview: Moses Malone

Think about pro basketball's brightest stars for a moment and you'll probably picture oversize athletes endowed with astonishing grace. Julius Erving soars into the air and then rides a current before coming down with a slam dunk; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's incomparable sky hook is the most beautiful basketball shot ever invented; Larry Bird, a stoic genius, obviously can achieve whatever he can conceive; and then there's the Magic show, in which one Earvin Johnson uncorks passes that seem impossible only until you realize that he can see out of his ears. Ever wonder what would happen if this land of sporting Nureyevs were attacked by Darth Vader? No need to ponder it further, for it has already happened. Unfortunately for his fellow pros, the invader is even tougher than Darth. We're referring, of course, to Moses Malone; and last year, the public finally picked up on something his colleagues had known for some time: Moses is numero uno in the National Basketball Association. The Man. The Force.

Consider the following: After leading the Philadelphia 76ers to their first world championship (finally!) last June, Malone was named the N.B.A.'s Most Valuable Player for the second straight year(his third such award) and was also voted M.V.P. of the championship series, in which the 'Sixers demolished Los Angeles in four games. The last time a player won both the championship-series and the league M.V.P. awards, the year was 1971, and the player was a young fellow who then went by the name of Lew Alcindor. During the 1982–1983 season, Malone scored 24.5 points a game and led the league in rebounding for the third straight year, but his slats aren't nearly as imposing as his presence on the court. Although only a modest (by N.B.A. standards) 6'10? tall, Malone has become basketball's best big man, primarily because he's the N.B.A.'s most relentless competitor. After the 76ers blew out Los Angeles last year, Lakers forward Kurt Rambis described what it was like trying to cope with Malone: "There are certain forces in nature you can't stop, and he is one of them." The Phoenix Suns' Maurice Lucas, a superb rebounder in his own right, has been battling Malone on the boards for nearly a decade. "With Moses, there is never any break," he says. "He's always coming at you. Always coming at you!...I can't think of anyone who's ever been like that before."

Veteran Milwaukee Bucks center Bob Lanier puts it more succinctly: "Moses is a monster."

That, of course, is not the truth. Malone only plays like a monster. Once he ambles onto a court, he is all scowls, growls and effort. He believes he should come down with every errant shot thrown up by members of either team. When Moses doesn't get a particular rebound, he gets bothered. Riled. He will then try harder to snare the next missed shot. Malone has such apparently inexhaustible energy that by the fourth quarter of most games, he has already worn out at least two opposition players. At that point, he becomes positively lethal. "No one works as hard as Moses, and he is tireless," says Billy Cunningham, head coach of the 76ers. Cunningham has more bad news for the rest of the N.B.A.: He believes Malone has yet to reach his peak. If that's so, we're talking Mount Everest, sports fans.

Moses Eugene Malone, the object of all those encomiums, was born in Petersburg, Virginia, on March 23, 1955. His father left home when the boy was two years old, and Moses was raised by his mother, Mary Malone, a religious, strong-willed woman who worked as a nurse's aide and later as a supermarket meat packer. He grew up in modest comfort and, like most of his friends, spent a lot of time playing football and baseball at a nearby schoolyard.

In many ways, his childhood ended the first time he picked up a basketball: Before he turned 14, Malone was dominating taller, older boys who played for Petersburg High. When he became a student there, he proceeded to break virtually every Virginia schoolboy basketball record. In his senior year, he averaged 36 points, 26 rebounds and 12 blocked shots per game—and by then, scores of college basketball coaches from around the country were encamped at Petersburg.

Malone was probably the most sought-after high school basketball player in history, and it took him an inordinate amount of time to decide where he wanted to go to college. He finally settled on the University of Maryland, but a funny thing happened as soon as he got to College Park: He was immediately drafted by the Utah Stars of the American Basketball Association. No player had ever jumped directly from high school to pro basketball—and when Malone signed a contract reportedly worth several million dollars, the coaching fraternity was outraged. Tom Heinsohn, then the coach of the Boston Celtics, said, "It's utterly ridiculous to pay that kind of money to a kid like this. He may be great, but there's no way a 19-year-old kid is going to step into pro basketball and be great right off the bat."

Heinsohn was dead wrong. In his rookie season, Malone scored nearly 19 points a game and was his team's leading rebounder. It's hard to imagine that ever happening again to such a young player.

To interview the 29-year-old phenomenon, Playboy sent Lawrence Linderman to meet with Malone during a recent visit to Petersburg. He reports:

"The first thing to remember about Moses Malone is that he goes his own way. After I flew to Richmond, he telephoned to say that he'd come over to the hotel for our interview; he was visiting his mother in Petersburg, a half hour away, and he didn't want me disturbing her privacy. Later on, when I saw him in Houston, where he and his family reside, he didn't want me disturbing the privacy of his wife, Alfreda, and their three-and-a-half-year-old son, Moses, Jr. Basically, Moses, Sr., keeps his distance.

"Before we met, the impression I'd formed of Malone wasn't particularly flattering. He's not fond of the press, approaches interviews the way he approaches a dentist's appointment and has been depicted by the media as a kind of hulking man-child. That last impression is formed only because it's hard to understand what he's saying the first few minutes you talk with him. Moses has a typical Virginia accent and speaks faster than anyone else I've ever interviewed—or met, for that matter. He spews out language at 78 rpm; the rest of us are accustomed to listening at 33 1/3. Once I got the hang of it, though, I found myself confronting a pretty shrewd operator who's very sure of himself. He has reason to be.

"In any case, when we sat down to begin our conversation, the subject of cocaine use among N.B.A. players was very much in the news. Flinching ever so slightly, I began our interview by asking Malone about it."

[Q] Playboy: We may as well get to this at the outset: Most basketball insiders believe cocaine use is more widespread among N.B.A. players than among athletes in any other sport. Are they right?

[A] Malone: I got no idea, 'cause I never actually see guys in the league doing that stuff, but you never know what they do behind closed doors. Players get invited to a lot of parties, and at some of them, you find out that they got a lot of good stuff that can get you messed up—and that's a situation you got to stay away from. You just can't get with the wrong people, especially the ladies: When the ladies see an athlete walking around, they think, Well, he got the cocaine, so let's go get high with him. Tell you this: If a player does that stuff at one party or with one lady, word's gonna get out that you're into cocaine. Seems like everybody wants to know if an athlete is on drugs, so you got to stay clear of wild people. I figure a lot of folks are probably looking to find out if Moses Malone is into that stuff, but the closest I come to drugs is drinking a Coca-Cola. I don't want that cocaine; it's not for me.

[Q] Playboy: Have you ever tried it?

[A] Malone: No, and I'm never gonna try it, because you got to pay a lot for cocaine, and that's not the way I want to spend my money. It's not gonna keep me high for the rest of my life, so why keep paying for it? What am I gonna do with cocaine? Get high and then get another $2000 out of my pocket and buy some more? Not me. I got a family; I don't want that stuff around. I don't even allow smoking in my house. People come to my house and they see a sign: Please Don't Smoke or Moses Will Put You Out. Light up a cigarette in my car and I'll put you and your cigarette out on the freeway. Wanna smoke? I'm gone. Wanna do cocaine? I'm gone.

[Q] Playboy: Does that put a crimp in your social life?

[A] Malone: Well, I hang by myself a lot, but when we're on the road and I go to a club, all kinds of people come up to me and sometimes I think somebody's saying, "Work on Moses Malone." Plenty of people have offered me cocaine, but I just tell 'em I don't do that stuff. I don't worry about what they'll think when I tell 'em that, either. I've had guys say, "Look, Moses, if you can't handle it, you can't hang with us." I tell 'em, "Hey, I got Washington, Grant and Abraham Lincoln in my wallet, and they're my friends—they're gonna buy me something. You're gonna take something, so why should I hang with you?"

[Q] Playboy: What's the usual reaction?

[A] Malone: People might get mad for five or ten minutes, but then they respect you more. And the next time they see you, they'll tell their friends, "Don't go up to him with that stuff—he don't mess with cocaine." If they're gonna do that with their lives, it's their problem. I'm not gonna do that with my life. People probably wonder about me 'cause I make so much money, but they don't have to worry about Moses and any of that stuff. Look at me: I'm 6'10?—I'm high enough.

[Q] Playboy: Let's clear up something else at the beginning. Ever since you became a pro, you've studiously avoided the press. And this interview is something of a departure for you. How come?

[A] Malone: I've always just wanted to play ball, that's all. I didn't want to do no interviews, because I didn't want to be bothered with reporters. I'm doing this because...well, Playboy's got a good rep, and it gives you good pub. But I still don't talk to reporters, because they're gonna write what they want to write, so let 'em write what they want to write.

[Q] Playboy: Are you aware that most sportswriters have interpreted your silence as proof that you have nothing to say?

[A] Malone: Well, reporters don't know me, because I don't talk to them; I just talk to the players. Every once in a while, I'll talk to a reporter; and over the years, I think they treated me well, and I think they been treated well. I gave 'em what they want and they gave me what I want...whenever we talked.

[Q] Playboy: All right, let's talk about money. Your six-year contract with the Philadelphia 76ers reportedly pays you $2,200,000 a year, which would make you the highest-salaried athlete in America. Is that figure accurate?

[A] Malone: Yeah, it is.

[Q] Playboy: You've been a millionaire for many years now. Has that been as much of a kick as you thought it might be?

[A] Malone: Oh, it's a living.

[Q] Playboy: It's a living?

[A] Malone: That's what it is. People got to realize that the owners who been paying me are a lot richer than I am. It's not like I was born rich; I had to play basketball to make this type of money. The only reason owners pay me is 'cause of what I can do. Owners want to make their team a winner so they can get more fans in the stands, and that's why they go after the best ballplayers and pay 'em what they're worth. I think we all should get paid what we're worth. Larry Bird's getting what he's worth, and if the Lakers didn't give Kareem Abdul-Jabbar what he's worth, they wouldn't even make it to the play-offs this year. Can we back up for a second?

[Q] Playboy: Do you want to change something you said?

[A] Malone: No, I want to change something you said. For most of the nine seasons I been in the pros, I was only a part-time millionaire. I might be full time now, but I was part time then.

[Q] Playboy: We stand corrected. Have you found any drawbacks to being a full-time millionaire?

[A] Malone: I guess some people are jealous of what I make, but that's about it. Listen, I enjoy money. You got to know how to enjoy it, though. A lot of people enjoy it the wrong way: They spend it all.

[Q] Playboy: You don't?

[A] Malone: Oh, I get what I want to be happy, but I'm conservative with my money. I'm the one who's got a family and I can't be playing basketball forever, so when I retire, I want to live on what I've made. I see a lot of athletes who retire and then they gotta go looking for work—and I don't want that happening to Moses. When I retire, I wanna be able to just lay back. Only way to make it happen is to be investing my money, not spending it.

[Q] Playboy: What do you invest in?

[A] Malone: Right now, I got between 30 and 35 investments I put money into every year, but I don't want to get into no investment talk with you. I got good advisors in Washington, D.C., who tell me what they think, and then I check it out and decide what to do.

[Q] Playboy: No other problems handling all that money?

[A] Malone: Well, I gotta admit, I have a lot of relatives now—most of 'em I never heard of when I was growing up. [Laughs] No, mainly it's that when you make a lotta money, you got a lotta people shooting at you. Anywhere you go, the tab goes up. People borrow stuff from you, you don't see it again—they figure, Hell, Moses ain't gonna miss it, why do I have to return it?

[Q] Playboy: If salary is a measure of a player's worth, do you think being pro basketball's highest-paid player means that you're the best?

[A] Malone: No, and I never felt that way. People been saying I'm the best 'cause I'm on the team that won last year, that's all. People never said I was the best two, three years ago.

[Q] Playboy: Was it true then?

[A] Malone: I don't think my game's changed none in the last two, three years. But I never thought I was the best; I just thought I was one of the best. Give that number-one rating to Larry Bird or Julius Erving or Kareem, because they all can play the game. I can play the game, too. So can the other 275 guys in the league, 'cause to become a pro, you gotta be doing something right. Take my word for it: The only reason people are saying I'm the number-one player is because I'm with the number-one team.

[Q] Playboy: The 76ers may have won the N.B.A. title last year, but what makes you so certain you'll be champions this season?

[A] Malone: It's real simple: The 76ers are the best team in the league. I rate our guards as the best in the N.B.A., 'cause they're the best combination: Mo Cheeks, he can run the show, and Andrew Toney can score against anybody. Bobby Jones is the best sixth man in the league, and then you got Dr. J, and who's better than him? We also got a good bench, but check this out: Doc, Toney, Cheeks, Jones—they're all All-Stars. That's why I wanted to come to Philadelphia in the first place. In Houston, I was the only All-Star on the team, and sometimes they'd look for me to win games by myself. When I signed with Philadelphia last year, I knew I didn't have to worry about scoring a lot to help the team win, which was a load off my mind. My main concern with the 76ers was to make them a better rebounding team and be able to run with them.

[Q] Playboy: Before you joined the 76ers, a lot of people wondered how well you'd fit into a team that, as you just pointed out, already had several stars on its roster. Did you think that might be a problem?

[A] Malone: I had no doubt in my mind about fitting in. I figured the 76ers were a great team before I got there, so I'd just do what Billy Cunningham, the coach, wanted me to do. I knew that once I learned the plays and Billy's system, I'd be ready to go.

[Q] Playboy: How long did it take for you and the rest of the 76ers to mesh as a team?

[A] Malone: Didn't take long at all. We practiced for a month and then played some exhibition games, so we were pretty together when the season started. By then, the other players knew me and what I do best, and I knew them and what they do best. After that, we just ran our stuff the way Billy wanted us to. See, I didn't come in there wanting to change anything and make the 76ers my team. I figured Doc's been there, so it's his team. And it is his team, 'cause Doc's the leader.

[Q] Playboy: In what sense?

[A] Malone: He keeps everybody together. Doc's a very smart individual who knows the game well and who plays it well. He's also a great guy—one of the best I ever met—and a great contributor to the younger players on our team. Sometimes to the older players, too.

[Q] Playboy: Has he helped you out at all?

[A] Malone: Yeah, he has. When he sees me not taking my shots right, he'll come over and give me a hint about what I'm doing wrong. Last year, he saw that I was rushing my shots, and he told me about it. He saw that if I took a little more time, I could be better, and he was right.

[Q] Playboy: Given all the scoring talent on the 76ers, does it ever seem as if one basketball isn't enough to go around?

[A] Malone: No, you have problems like that only when you're on a losing team; winning teams don't have too many people trying to be superstars. Guys like Doc and Bobby Jones, they been around and they know it's about winning, not worrying about ego problems or who's gonna get all the publicity. That was my biggest surprise about the 76ers: They're the most unselfish team I've ever been on. Everybody on the 76ers just wants to win, and they don't care who does what to make it happen. That was my main goal—to help the 76ers win a world championship—and I came here with the attitude that we could win it. Most everybody picked us to win, but the guys on the team had been through that for so many years without doing it, and I think I saw the reason why: When everybody thinks you should win, then you start feeling like you got to win, and that's no good.

[Q] Playboy: Why?

[A] Malone: Because to play your best, you gotta be relaxed—you can't worry what people will think if you lose. You want to win, but you can't get uptight about it, see? Too many people were putting pressure on the 76ers to win every year, and I think some of the players were feeling it.

[Q] Playboy: You didn't?

[A] Malone: No, I never feel any pressure about winning. I just go out and play my game, and I knew we'd win it if the guys just went out and played their game. That was the pressure I felt: I hoped the team would be relaxed enough to play the way they can.

[Q] Playboy: How important was winning that championship to you?

[A] Malone:Very important. You know, I been a pro for nine years, and every year, you play more than 100 games—and you want to get that ring one year. And then, when you get that ring, you wanna keep on getting it. Well, we got it last year, and we'll get it this year.

[Q] Playboy: The Los Angeles Lakers might have something to say about that.

[A] Malone: Don't matter what the Lakers say, we're a better team than they are, and we proved it last year. We can run with them, but they have to be very strong on the boards to beat us, and after Magic Johnson, they don't have a strong re-bounder. I figured that if we played solid defense, we could beat the Lakers, so that's what I concentrated on. What made it a great series was that everybody wanted to see me and Kareem matched up against each other for the title. What made it an even better series was that the Lakers had beaten Philadelphia in the finals two out of the last three years, and now people wanted to see if Los Angeles could beat 'em with Moses on the team. Well, they couldn't. We swept 'em four straight.

[Q] Playboy: Do you think that would have been the case if James Worthy, the Lakers' superb rookie forward, hadn't been out with injuries?

[A] Malone: Hey, before Worthy got hurt, we played the Lakers twice and beat them dead. I'm not saying the Lakers aren't a strong team, 'cause they are. But if they make it to the finals again this year, it'll just be another good show on CBS. It'll be like two big powerhouses meeting each other—and we'll beat 'em again. We can control them, but they can't control us, because we got too many weapons. The Lakers couldn't control Dr. J or Toney, and they couldn't control me with the two 6'8? guys [Kurt Rambis and Mark Landsberger] they had guarding me. When I get the ball near the basket, I don't think there's a 6'8? player in the league who can guard me. I get the ball down low, it's all over; they're too small to stop me from scoring.

[Q] Playboy: Aren't you too small to stop Kareem from scoring?

[A] Malone: Nobody stops Kareem from scoring. Kareem's been the greatest ballplayer of his time—he's been league M.V.P. six times—so you know he's got to be the greatest scorer of his time. All you can do is make him work for his points.

[Q] Playboy: And how do you do that?

[A] Malone: I try to take his hook shot away from him. Every center in the league tries to stop Kareem from shooting his sky hook, but it's hard to do, 'cause you can't keep him away from the ball. Kareem's 7'2?; if I play in front of him, his guys will just lob the ball up over me, and now Kareem's gonna stuff it down the hole. My thing is to try to keep him from going to his right, which is when he shoots his sky hook. I try to outwork him and make him go to his left, and maybe take a jump shot or something else he can't shoot as well as his hook shot. I guard [the Milwaukee Bucks'] Bob Lanier the same way, 'cept he's a lefty, so I try to keep him from going to his left and taking his hook shot.

[Q] Playboy: Are Abdul-Jabbar and Lanier the most difficult for you to guard?

[A] Malone: I have to worry about every center, because they all can play the game. A guy like Robert Parish...well, I mean, Robert Parish is a whole different story. When we play the Boston Celtics, I know I can't stop Parish's jump shot, because he's 7'1?. Only way to play him is to keep him from getting to the spots he likes to shoot from. To stop any of the league's centers from scoring, I gotta know what they do best; I gotta do my homework. If I didn't study films of the big guys, they'd kill me out there.

[Q] Playboy: What kinds of things do you look for on film?

[A] Malone: I start with a player's offensive game first—his best shots and where he shoots 'em from—and then I check out everything else. I want to know all about the man. Is he tough on the boards? What type of runner is he? Does he get down-court quick? Does he foul a lot? Is he a good foul shooter? If he isn't, that gives me an edge: If we're in a close game and time's running out, I won't worry about trying to block his shot and maybe picking up a foul. But if I'm checking somebody who's a good foul shooter, I'll have to think twice about maybe sending him to the line.

[Q] Playboy: Are you a good foul shooter?

[A] Malone: Yeah; I make about 77 percent from the line. Me and Kareem are probably the two best centers in the league when it comes to shooting foul shots.

[Q] Playboy: You and Abdul-Jabbar are probably the two best centers in the league by any measurement. How do you get along with him?

[A] Malone: Kareem's a good fella; me and Kareem have never had no problems. I talk to him and he talks to me. I think I learned a lot from Kareem. I'm still trying to pick up on that sky hook of his, but there ain't but one guy in the league who can make it happen.

[Q] Playboy: Abdul-Jabbar has said he learns something from you every time he watches you play. What do you think you've taught him?

[A] Malone: The power game underneath and working on staying power—you want to be as strong at the end of a game as when it starts. You watch enough 76ers' games and you'll see that in the fourth quarter, a lotta guys I play against get too tired to beat me underneath.

[Q] Playboy: Do you think that much of your success depends on being in better shape than your opponents?

[A] Malone: That ain't really it, 'cause you can't play pro ball without being in shape. I might be stronger than some of the other guys, that's all. But they know it, 'cause they watch films of me just like I watch films of them. They see what I can do best and they try to stop me from doing it.

[Q] Playboy: Who's the toughest player for you to score against?

[A] Malone: I really don't know. Several guys play me tough, but, like I said, I don't worry about offense, 'cause the 76ers got a lot of players who can score. I concentrate mainly on defense and on trying to stop the seven-footers from scoring.

[Q] Playboy: At 6'10?, you're one of the shortest starting centers in the league, yet you're also the N.B.A.'s most dominant player at that position—or any position, for that matter. How do you compensate for your lack of height?

[A] Malone: I make up for it with speed and power. See, I play a different style of center than other players in the league. My first three years in the pros, I was a forward, and I bet I could be the best big forward in the league—and if Billy Cunningham ever gave me the green light, I might even make it as a guard. Anyway, after my second year at Houston, Kevin Kunnert, our center, was traded away and the coach decided to put me in the middle. Well, back then, I weighed maybe 220 pounds, and all of a sudden, every night I had to battle guys who went from 6'11? to 7'4?. I couldn't do that weighing no 220, so I started working out on a Nautilus machine, lifted weights, ate starchy foods, and I bulked up to 255. I'm not one of them muscle-beach guys—they can't move and you need speed in the N.B.A. I just worked on strength and staying power. I like that power game; I like to get underneath and make contact with other players and let 'em know I'm there.

[Q] Playboy: And we thought basketball was a noncontact sport.

[A] Malone: It's never been a noncontact sport. You don't see basketball players wearing shoulder pads like football players, but it might not be a bad idea, 'cause there's a lot of bruising underneath. I wear a boxer's mouthpiece, and a lot of guys are starting to use 'em, because every time you go up for a rebound, elbows start snapping all over the place. I wind up taking a lot of punishment and sometimes I think I am a fighter out there. During the play-offs, there were games when I thought I should've brought boxing gloves, but that's the way the game is played: rough and tough. You want to be a center or a forward in the N.B.A., you gotta be strong and you gotta go to the glass with power.

[Q] Playboy: Have you ever thought that perhaps you play the game too rough?

[A] Malone: How can I be playing too rough? I haven't fouled out of a game in five or six years.

[Q] Playboy: Since you're the N.B.A.'s most physical player, how have you managed to pull that off?

[A] Malone: Well, some people might think I'm too rough out there, but I play the game the way referees think it should be played. I never foul out because I never commit six fouls in a game. I play aggressive defense, but I don't beat people up; I play to make 'em work, that's all.

[Q] Playboy: Do you stop playing tight defense after you get called for a few fouls?

[A] Malone: Nope, I play my same game from beginning to end. Even if I got five fouls, if I see a player driving toward the basket and I know he's gonna jump into me, I might not try to block his shot, but I'm gonna hold my position. You know, when some guys foul out, they jump up and down and argue with the refs, just so they can look good to the fans. It's like they're trying to get the fans to think, I didn't do it—the ref did. Well, we ain't got any referees who don't let you play the game. But you got to know how to play the game, and you gotta play smart.

[Q] Playboy: Does playing smart basketball include psyching out your opponents?

[A] Malone: Not for me, it don't. The only guy I psych out is myself.

[Q] Playboy: In what way?

[A] Malone: I watch tapes of our games to see how hard I'm playing. I wanna see tension in my eyes, I wanna see me sweating and getting angry out there—and if I don't see that, it gets me mad. If I look at a tape and see myself relaxing, or laughing and smiling during a game, I say, "Heck, I ain't doing my work." Some people won't understand, but the name of the game is winning. The 76ers don't pay me to watch the ball come off the glass; they pay me to get rebounds and put 'em in the hole and help the team win. They pay me to win, and that's why I play so hard. Can't win if I don't play hard.

[Q] Playboy: Aside from salary considerations, is winning that vital?

[A] Malone: Yeah, I love to win. You win, you're the champ, and when you're the champ, ain't nothing anybody can say. All they can do is come back and try to take your crown away from you. I don't care where I play, even if it's the championship game in a schoolyard, I want to win.

[Q] Playboy:Do you play in schoolyards?

[A] Malone: During the off season, I do. When I'm home in Houston or visiting my momma in Petersburg [Virginia], I'm out playing pickup games three or four times a week.

[Q] Playboy: How do schoolyard players feel about going up against Moses Malone?

[A] Malone: A lot of 'em don't know I'm Moses Malone, 'cause I don't tell 'em. Up until I got with the 76ers, I wasn't on the tube that much, so when I'd go out to a schoolyard, I'd say my name was Mike Wynn, and people would think I was just some old guy they could take care of. When I run across a player who don't know I'm Moses Malone, and if I end up getting 85 points on him, I'll say, "You know who you're playing against?" He'll say, "Yeah, Mike Wynn." Well, I tell him who I am, and now he's all excited. He'd have been mad if I didn't tell him, but now that he knows he's been up against Moses, he ain't mad anymore. He can turn around and say, "Sure he got 85 points off me. He's a pro." See, if I told him who I was to start out, it would be a different game—he'd hammer me all night.

[Q] Playboy: Are schoolyard players that tough?

[A] Malone: I run across plenty of 'em that are. And if they watch me play on TV, they see how I get beat up and they'll think, Well, if he can get beat up on TV, he can take the beating I'll give him.

[Q] Playboy: Then why play in schoolyards?

[A] Malone: It's exciting, you know? I can go out there and see young players who show me different moves, and I might learn something new. It keeps me sharp.

[Q] Playboy: Counting play-off games, the N.B.A. schedule now drags on for nearly nine months. Don't you get enough basketball during the season?

[A] Malone: Sure I do, but I also gotta prepare myself for the season.

[Q] Playboy: Are there stretches during the season when you almost have to manufacture enthusiasm for the game?

[A] Malone: Nope, I try to stay consistent the whole year round. It is a long season, but it's not tough like having to get up and work from eight to five at a job you got to do. I know I can't be playing ball all my life, so while I'm still in the league, I want to get the most I can out of it—and the only way to do that is to give 110 percent every game. I can relax when the season's over, and I figure that people pay a big dollar to see us play, so I don't take no breaks out on the court. I like for the team to look good and for me to look good.

[Q] Playboy: Have you always worked so hard at the sport?

[A] Malone: Always, yeah. I didn't pick up a basketball till I was 13 and a half, but I worked hard even then. Every day after school, I'd go over to this playground on Virginia Avenue and play ball till about two in the morning. They put up lights there after I left, but back then, there was just a streetlight that flashed a little bit on the basketball court. Me and a guy named Gut Johnson would be out there every night playing one on one, full court—we played hard against each other.

[Q] Playboy:Gut Johnson?

[A] Malone: Yeah, as in gut. [Pats his stomach] Tried to eat everything. He'd have 100 gingersnaps, you'd ask for one, he'd complain he only had 99 left.

[Q] Playboy: Didn't your mother find your night games a bit unusual?

[A] Malone: No, she knew I wouldn't get into no trouble playing ball. The only trouble I had was I kept wearing out my shoes. Back then, I didn't get no high-priced shoe; I had to get them old P.F. Flyers. I'd wear them for about five days and then it was time for a new pair.

[Q] Playboy: How long was it before all that hard work started to pay off?

[A] Malone: Only about a year—one of my years was worth five of anybody else's. When I was 14, I was going up against much older guys and putting it to 'em.

[Q] Playboy: At what point did the college coaches start coming around?

[A] Malone: After my freshman year at Petersburg High. They really started coming around after I went to a basketball camp in Pennsylvania that Pro Hayes, my assistant high school coach, told me about. It was called the Five-Star Basketball Camp, and 250 of the best high school players in the country went up there every year. I didn't want to go, 'cause I didn't think I'd learn anything there, but the coach arranged for me to go, so I decided to check it out.

[Q] Playboy: To see how you stacked up against the best players in the nation?

[A] Malone: That's right. The camp was run by a New York guy named Howie Garfinkel, and he rated players from one star to five stars.

[Q] Playboy: How many did he give you?

[A] Malone: Garfinkel gave me seven—he said I was the best player to ever come to his camp. The camp was split up into teams, and when I got there, he put me on a team with two other good players, but the rest of 'em couldn't really play. Well, we went and defeated the whole camp—we were the champs. After that, wherever I went, people would tell me that Garfinkel always said Moses was the baddest thing that ever came through there.

[Q] Playboy: How far along was your game at that point?

[A] Malone: Oh, I had some stuff. I could handle the ball, I could dribble and shoot the jump shot, block shots, rebound—I don't think I had a weak point. Remember I said I don't think I'm the number-one player in the pros? Well, I can tell you I was the number-one high school player in the country.

[Q] Playboy: A lot of college coaches evidently reached the same conclusion, especially after you led Petersburg High to 50 straight victories and two consecutive state championships. How many colleges offered you basketball scholarships?

[A] Malone: Between 300 and 400. Seemed like every college, including a lot I never heard of before, sent somebody around.

[Q] Playboy: Did all that attention turn your head?

[A] Malone: No, everybody except me thought I was great. I was all right as a ballplayer, but I didn't kid myself about nothing else. People were telling me, "Moses, you're one of the greatest ballplayers in high school history." Right. Well, I could have tore up a knee the next day, and I still would have been one of the greatest ballplayers in high school history—but if that happened, I wouldn't be talking to you now and the colleges would have stopped talking to me.

[Q] Playboy: Were you under a lot of pressure during that period?

[A] Malone: You mean when I was being recruited by colleges? No, I enjoyed the whole thing. Press and TV people would come around all the time and ask, "What are you going to do, Mo?" That was the part I really liked, because I was never in that situation before. I'm from the ghetto, and I'd heard of rich people getting that type of publicity, so I wanted to see what it felt like. Pressure? Pressure where? It was fun! I traveled every time I got a break. I visited at least 26 schools. Every time you looked around, I was flying somewhere and seeing new things. I grew up thinking that Petersburg, Virginia, was the best part of the world; but when I started visiting all those colleges, I realized Petersburg was the only part of the world I'd seen. It didn't change my feeling none about Petersburg, but things were a lot different on the West Coast, in the Southwest, in Hawaii, all over.

[Q] Playboy: And each time you returned from one of those trips, dozens of college coaches were practically camped out on your doorstep. How did you handle that part of it?

[A] Malone: I didn't; I let my mother do it.

[Q] Playboy: Is it true that Oral Roberts offered to cure your mother's bleeding ulcer by faith healing if you enrolled at Oral Roberts University?

[A] Malone: Well, I know he came down and talked to my mother, but while a lot of those things were going on, Moses was out the door. I really don't know how she got that ulcer, but I know I didn't let any of the recruiters worry me to death. What with all the coaches and reporters hanging around the house, people thought I was under a lot of pressure, but I didn't feel hassled about it at all. I thought it was nice. They all wanted to know what I knew, and I wouldn't tell 'em. I only told 'em what I wanted to tell 'em.

[Q] Playboy: Which was?

[A] Malone: That I hadn't made up my mind.

[Q] Playboy: Did some of the coaches who pursued you offer under-the-table cash as an incentive to enroll at their schools?

[A] Malone: Oh, I had some good offers. I'm not going to name any names, but when people want the number-one high school player in the nation, there's a lot they want to give you. Yeah, I had college coaches take care of me. They kept my pocket full.

[Q] Playboy: Was Maryland's Lefty Driesell among the contributors?

[A] Malone: No, I picked the University of Maryland because my mother wanted me to go there and it was close to home. Lefty Driesell was really a down-to-earth guy. It wasn't all basketball with him; he was concerned about me getting an education and having something to fall back on if I didn't make it in the pros. I liked Driesell and the school, so I enrolled at Maryland. I was in classes for a day and a half when I heard I'd been drafted by the Utah Stars of the American Basketball Association.

[Q] Playboy: What was your reaction?

[A] Malone: I thought it was a joke. When somebody around school told me I'd been drafted by the Stars, I said, "Don't give me that. They're not gonna take no player out of high school." Later on that day, I saw it on the TV news, so I thought, Well, it must be true, so I better check it out. But it was still a surprise, a big surprise.

[Q] Playboy: It must have been quite a surprise to Driesell as well.

[A] Malone: Sure it was, but when I told him I was interested in playing pro ball, he was just so...kind to me. Lefty said, "I know some great lawyers in Washington, D.C., and I'd like you to sit down and talk to them before you make a decision." And he did get me two great lawyers—Lee Fentress and Donald Dell—and they talked for me and got me a five-year contract.

[Q] Playboy: The Utah Stars of the now-defunct A.B.A. supposedly signed you to a $3,000,000 five-year contract. Are those figures correct?

[A] Malone: Yeah. That's what we agreed on, and the contract was guaranteed—they couldn't cut me from the team and they'd have to pay me even if I got hurt. It was a great contract; I was just coming out of high school and I figured that kind of money could make me happy for the rest of my life. So I signed with the Stars, and me and Driesell stayed friends and we're still friends. Lefty knows that if I was going to play college ball, it would've been at the University of Maryland. We still joke about the whole thing. I told Lefty that I still got four years of college eligibility left, so when I'm finished in the N.B.A., maybe I'll come back and play for Maryland. Might have to go to court to get that done.

[Q] Playboy: You were the first basketball player ever to go directly from high school to the pros. Do you have any regrets about not going to college?

[A] Malone: No, I think I made the right decision. Even back when it happened, in '74, I felt that if I was making a mistake, well, it's my life, nobody else's, so I'd have to deal with it. The thing is, I thought college ball was too easy. In college ball, you just touch a player and they call a foul. I like to play a really tough, aggressive game, and I like to play against the best ballplayers, because I think it's better for me. I figured that if I could skip college and play pro ball, I'd be at the best stage for me.

[Q] Playboy: But what about the fact that you denied yourself an education?

[A] Malone: [Pause] I'm smart enough. I know what's going on. I got common sense. I know enough to survive.

[Q] Playboy: What do you tell kids—especially all the young black kids who look up to you?

[A] Malone: I tell 'em not to try to do it my way, to do their lessons first, then play pro ball. I tell 'em that if they think they're great in high school, it don't matter, it'll be different in the pros.

[Q] Playboy: While in high school, did you ever compete against professionals?

[A] Malone: No, I never played against any pros till I got to be one. But I played a lot of sand-lot ball in Petersburg against older guys who were more aggressive than me, and there was some great talent around back then. I was pretty sure I'd do OK in the pros.

[Q] Playboy: You were barely 19 when you went to Salt Lake City to play for the Utah Stars. Was living out there difficult for you?

[A] Malone: My first year was tough. Basically, I was homesick. I don't have nothing bad to say about Salt Lake City, but I didn't have too much to do there. The whole city's surrounded by mountains and lots of people go skiing, but I never got into that. It was physically tough, too. In high school, I was playing 18 to 25 games a year, and in the pros, there were six or eight pre-season games, then about 80 regular season games, and then play-offs. That was the biggest change for me.

[Q] Playboy: What about the fact that you were going to a state with so few blacks in it—did that make you uncomfortable?

[A] Malone: No; just about all my teammates were black. Utah was OK.

[Q] Playboy: Bucky Buckwalter, who coached the Utah Stars, says that when you arrived, your teammates did their best to physically intimidate you on the court. Did they resent all the money and publicity you'd gotten?

[A] Malone: No, they were good guys, but they did try to intimidate me. I never paid no attention to that, and after a couple of weeks, they started saying, "Well, this kid from high school, we're not intimidating him—when is he gonna start intimidating us?" I never backed down, so I really didn't have a problem with the guys. Most of the players on the Stars—especially the older ones like Ron Boone and Gerald Govan—treated me like I was their kid and they were my daddy. They'd tell me, "Moses, you can't do this and don't do that," and I listened to them. They always told me the right thing to do; they never told me the wrong thing.

[Q] Playboy: In your rookie season, you were the Utah Stars' leading rebounder and second leading scorer. Did that surprise you?

[A] Malone: Like I said, I knew I was ready for the pros. I felt even stronger coming into my second year, but I only played half a season—I fractured my right foot. Wasn't nothing serious, though.

[Q] Playboy: Before you recuperated, the Utah Stars went bankrupt, and then the A.B.A. itself folded. At the start of the '76 season, you spent a total of three weeks with N.B.A. teams in Portland and Buffalo before being shipped down to Houston. Why didn't those clubs want you?

[A] Malone: Oh, Portland had Bill Walton at center and Maurice Lucas at one forward and didn't think they needed me. Before the season started, they traded me to Buffalo, and I didn't spend but a week there—Tates Locke, Buffalo's coach, didn't want me on the team.

[Q] Playboy: Why not?

[A] Malone: Well, we had a little recruiting problem when Tates Locke was the coach at Clemson and wanted me to come be his center. Some people from Clemson gave my uncle $2000 to get me to go to school there, and when my mother found out about it, she made him give the money back. [Malone's uncle denied it.] Clemson got into trouble later on, and I don't think Locke ever forgot it. He acted like he wasn't still angry about it, but I think he was. When I got to Buffalo, he just wouldn't play me. I figured, Well, this is a shame, but I didn't like the weather in Buffalo, anyhow. I wanted outa there, so I think they did me a favor by trading me to Houston. The Rockets wanted me for scoring and rebounding, and I did my part.

[Q] Playboy: You were voted the league's Most Valuable Player after the '78–'79 season, by which time you'd emerged as the N.B.A.'s leading rebounder and one of its top scorers. What does it take to be a great rebounder?

[A] Malone: It takes a lot. It is tough under the boards, and a lot of players don't want that pain. You also got to use your body well and your weight well, and you can't let up under there. You got to keep it in your mind that every shot is gonna miss. That way, every chance you get to go to the boards, you'll be there.

[Q] Playboy: Most basketball experts claim you're the finest offensive rebounder in the sport's history. Is there any particular reason you excel in that department?

[A] Malone: Well, I know how our guys shoot and where the ball will probably go if they miss. Some guys shoot hard, some soft, some put a big arch on their shot. I'm out playing with the Sixers every night and practicing with 'em on off days, so when they miss, I'm gonna know where to be better than the centers I'm playing against.

[Q] Playboy: Some N.B.A. coaches still don't understand how you get so many rebounds and claim that compared with most pro jumping jacks, you can barely get off your feet. Is that true?

[A] Malone: 'Course not. I've heard it, though: "Moses isn't a great leaper, so how come he got all the rebounds?" Well, I can leap, I can jump. I just think people need things to talk about, and every year there's something different they say I can't do. Now they're saying Moses ain't a great leaper, but Moses been leading the league in rebounds every year, so what's he doing to get those rebounds? Hey, I'm going up above the rim to get those rebounds. It's just like when I first came into the league and people tried to say I couldn't score. But I've always been able to put the ball in the hole, I was never just a rebounder. People have said my hands are too small, but I ain't got no problem holding the ball. Next year you might hear that my feet are too small. I think it's all bullshit. It's like when I was with Houston and people said I couldn't run. They just couldn't see what was happening in front of them.

[Q] Playboy: What did they miss?

[A] Malone: They didn't understand the kind of offense Houston used. This is why you gotta get with the right coach, one who'll let you show all the talent you have. At Houston, the Rockets played a slow game, a ball-control game, so people said I couldn't run. But when I got with the 76ers and coach Billy Cunningham, all of a sudden, I could run and get down on fast breaks. Hey, I could always run, just like I could always jump and could always score. You understand? I could always do the stuff people said I couldn't do. Once I got to Philadelphia, it all changed, but in Houston, I never got recognition for what I could do.

[Q] Playboy: If that's true, why do you think it happened?

[A] Malone: You play in the Southwest and not too many people around the country are gonna find out what you can do. The Rockets were never on the TV that much, but as soon as I got with Philadelphia, well, everybody knows about the 76ers and sees us play on the TV. You also got the best press on the East Coast, especially in Philadelphia, where they really know their basketball. And Philadelphia newspapers have a way of traveling around the country; Houston papers travel from Houston to Houston. Whatever they write about you stays there—it ain't going nowhere.

[Q] Playboy: If Philadelphia sportswriters really know their basketball, are you implying that Houston sportswriters don't know theirs?

[A] Malone: Houston sportswriters don't know a good ballplayer from a bad one. Same thing's true about other cities. Philadelphia people really know their basketball. Houston don't know basketball.

[Q] Playboy: Since you played in Houston for six years, how much did that bother you?

[A] Malone: Hard to say, hard to say. I live in Houston. I have more peace in Houston, because people don't follow basketball too much there. Houston was always low-profile, and that was OK—I didn't want a big profile where everybody would recognize me. In Philadelphia, if I go into a restaurant and sit down, everybody's in my face, saying, "Moses, would you sign an autograph?" I really don't want that; I just want to be a down-to-earth person sitting there eating and having a good time with the fellas. I don't want to have a thing where everywhere I go somebody's gonna say, "Oh, there's Moses Malone."

[Q] Playboy: But doesn't that come with the territory?

[A] Malone: Hey, I got nothing to complain about. If you're doing good, if you're a star, you can go anyplace you want to go; but when you retire, then you got to leave, and it's all over. Right now, it's like if we hadn't won the world championship, people wouldn't be calling Moses to do this or do that. When the Lakers won the championship the year before we did, nobody called me then. So I look at it both ways: If I wasn't in this position, people wouldn't be asking me to do commercials and to sign autographs; but at the same time, I ain't gonna stop being Moses. I'm not out to show people I'm on an ego trip; I'm showing people myself, and I'm gonna be myself. If I don't want to talk to nobody, I don't. I'm a private man; I like to have privacy.

[Q] Playboy: Doesn't that seem impossible to maintain right now?

[A] Malone: No, all that happens is that people get mad when I don't do what they want me to do. But you gotta be your own man; you gotta tell people how you feel and what you want to do, and you be insane if you don't do that, because then you're doing what everybody else wants you to do. You gotta get your own peace of mind; you can't worry what people are going to think of you. You know, up until last year, that wasn't even a problem, but now everybody wants to see Moses and Doc and the 76ers 'cause we're the champs—and that's even happening in Houston. The people there just started recognizing me this year. In the off season, a whole lotta people in Houston came up to me and said, "Moses, we really miss you. We shoulda kept you here."

[Q] Playboy: How close did the Rockets come to keeping you?

[A] Malone: They didn't come close enough! The people who tell me how much they miss me should have had a picket line in front of the Summit [the Rockets' basketball arena] with signs saying, Keep Moses, Keep Moses. They didn't miss me until I went to Philadelphia and helped the 76ers win a world championship. Now they found out what I can do, so now they miss me. I won M.V.P. twice while I was in Houston, but the people didn't understand what it meant. It was a big joke to them.

[Q] Playboy: It couldn't have been a big joke to the Rockets' owners. When your three-year, $3,000,000 contract with them expired after the 1981–1982 season, did you become a free agent because you wanted out of Houston?

[A] Malone: I didn't want to leave Houston, I just wanted to get paid what I was worth. I became a free agent because I didn't think the Rockets really tried to sign me and that made me feel low-down; but my spirits went up when Harold Katz, the owner of the 76ers, wanted me.

[Q] Playboy: Why were only the 76ers interested in you?

[A] Malone: I didn't have other offers because the price was too high. If I asked for half a million, all 23 teams would have tried to get me. My situation was different: When I became a free agent, everybody knew that since I won M.V.P., I'd ask for a big price, but the money didn't really make no difference. I just wanted to have somewhere to play and be paid what owners thought I was worth. When Philadelphia gave me an offer sheet for $13,200,000, I signed it and gave it to the Rockets' owner, Charlie Thomas, who'd been telling everybody he'd match whatever offer I got from another team. Turned out to be a lot of bullshit, so I thought, If Houston don't want me, I want to be in Philadelphia.

[Q] Playboy: It sounds as if you're still upset about that. Are you?

[A] Malone: Yeah, I am. I didn't like how the Rockets bluffed the fans down there for two years, telling 'em they'd match whatever offer I got from another team. Soon as I got an offer from Philadelphia, they went and traded me to the 76ers. They figured I wasn't worth all the money Katz was gonna give me, and then Thomas said I told him I didn't want to be in Houston, and I never said that! He said other things, too, like how I didn't win a world championship for Houston. Well, the year before I went to Philadelphia, the Rockets won 46 games; last year, without me, they won 14 games. All I know is that when I signed that offer sheet, I crossed an ocean.

[Q] Playboy: Because the Rockets finished last in the N.B.A.'s Western Conference last year, they flipped a coin with the Eastern Conference's weak sister, Indiana, for the right to pick first in the league's college draft. They won and, as expected, selected Virginia's Ralph Sampson—and a lot of people now feel that Thomas is something of a genius. Do you?

[A] Malone: I just think he got lucky. But, sec, now he has to pay Ralph Sampson $1,000,000 a year, and Ralph's a guy who was a great ballplayer in college but never proved himself in the N.B.A.

[Q] Playboy: What's your opinion of him?

[A] Malone: He's a great offensive ballplayer. He's got a lot of good stuff around the hole, and he's gonna do it in this league. But Ralph's not gonna make Houston a winner in his first year, because he's young and he's got a lot of things to learn. So people shouldn't put pressure on him and he shouldn't worry about pressure.

[Q] Playboy: Don't you think that all the publicity Sampson's received—together with that $1,000,000 salary—makes it almost inevitable that he will feel pressure?

[A] Malone: Ralph should be like me and forget it. He shouldn't worry about all that stuff; he should just go out there and do what he can do best. Ralph was the number-one college player for three years, and now that he's making big money as a pro, it don't mean he got to prove a point to anybody. The only point he's got to prove is to himself—that he can play the game. He can't try to prove to people that he can make the Rockets the champs.

[Q] Playboy: Does playing against Sampson present a special challenge to you?

[A] Malone: I gotta play hard against him, 'cause Ralph's 7'4?, but otherwise, no, it's no challenge, 'cause Houston will never beat us. If we play the Rockets 25 times, we'll beat 'em 25 times. Houston's ours.

[Q] Playboy: You're obviously a confident man; but considering your reticence about the press, would you say you were also a shy man?

[A] Malone: I'm not shy; I just don't put myself in a category a lot of people do: "There goes Moses Malone, superstar of the Philadelphia 76ers." I keep myself out of that position. I'm just Moses Malone; I was Moses Malone when I was born and when I grew up, and I ain't no different now. I don't let people put me on a high cloud, because when the time comes, they'll bring me back down to a low cloud. When your band wagon's going good, everybody jumps on it—and right now my wagon's going real good—but when that wagon starts going bad, ain't nobody gonna jump on it. When I retire from pro ball, you ain't gonna hear too many people asking after Moses Malone.

[Q] Playboy: Have you thought about how much longer you plan to play?

[A] Malone: Oh, I'll play at least four more years—that's what I got left on my contract. After that, maybe I'll be too old. And I am getting old. I don't feel any wear yet, but I keep ice on my knees after our games just to be ready to do all the work I got to do on the court.

[Q] Playboy: According to our calculations, you'll have to play at least another ten seasons to break Wilt Chamberlain's N.B.A. career record of nearly 24,000 rebounds. Is that one of your goals?

[A] Malone: No, I don't set no goals, except to win. I just go out there and play for the pleasure of playing.

[Q] Playboy: Has nine years of pro ball taken any of the edge off that pleasure?

[A] Malone: No, I still love to play ball. I always keep the little boy in me, and I think if I ever lose that little boy, I'll be in trouble, because then I'll lose the fun of playing. When that happens to players—and it happens to a lot of 'em—they stop working to make themselves better. But I don't see that happening to me.

[Q] Playboy: What if it does?

[A] Malone: Then I'll stop playing, but I'm sure that ain't gonna be a problem.

[Q] Playboy: Why are you so sure of that?

[A] Malone: Because all I do is play basketball. It's like a doctor's a doctor and a lawyer's a lawyer. I'm a basketball player; that's my profession.

"I still love to play ball. I always keep the little boy in me and I think if I ever lose him, I'll be in trouble."