Open Court, Open Road, the Mailman Is Still Delivering

Magic Johnson dreams of owning his own team now that his NBA playing days are apparently over. Michael Jordan dreams of hitting the pro golf circuit after he has taken his last shot for the Chicago Bulls.

Many NBA stars just dream of kicking back on the pile of money they have earned and relaxing for the rest of their lives.

Karl Malone is no different. The All-Star forward of the Utah Jazz has his own special dream for the future. He wants to be . . . a truck driver.

As a child, Malone wanted to be a trucker long before he thought about playing pro basketball. Nicknamed “the Mailman” because he always delivers on the court, Malone wants to keep delivering after he stops playing.

“This is it,” said Malone, 28, who envisions one day owning a fleet of 18-wheelers. “This is what I wanted to do. This is what I’ll do when I retire.”

Malone posed for a poster with his custom-painted tractor-trailer earlier this week in Salt Lake City, but he was obviously eager for the open road.

“Let’s just do this,” he said. “I want to get it over with so’s I can get the hell out of here.”

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Driving down the lane: The Barcelona Olympics will cut short Malone’s trucking season, but he has a few trips planned. The first was last Wednesday, when he took off, heading north on Interstate 15 from Salt Lake City to Malad, Ida., to take formal possession of the truck.

From there, it was on to Idaho Falls to pick up of a load of potatoes for transport back to Salt Lake. Round trip: about 450 miles.

Malone got his commercial freight license earlier this spring after passing rigorous written and driving tests. He said he was more nervous before weaving his big rig between the cones than he generally is before a game.

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Trivia time: In 1954, Ed Furgol beat Gene Littler by a stroke for the U.S. Open golf title. It was a historic moment for the sport. How so?

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Mother knows best: It was her birthday, so Maxine Schneiderman of Studio City was not surprised to get a call from her son, Ross, even though he was busy at the time in the television booth off Center Court in Paris, working as a statistician for NBC’s coverage of the French Open.

Schneiderman was surprised, however, when her son insisted on putting someone else on the line to add another birthday greeting--Chris Evert, now a network commentator.

And what did the retired tennis star, now a new mother, say to Schneiderman?

“Motherhood is better.”

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These Bulls are big bucks: Chicago Bull merchandise is sweeping the country. More than $480 million in Bulls’ gear has been sold in the last year, representing more than 40% of all NBA merchandise sold that bears logos of the 27 teams.

“What surprises me is that in a lot of cities, they cheer for us as if we’re the home team,” Michael Jordan said.

But the Bulls haven’t always been so popular. NBA publicity chief Brian McIntyre remembers the lean times when he worked for the Bulls before Jordan, from 1978 to 1981.

“One time, a guy broke into our team office and returned four season tickets,” McIntyre said.

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A kiss is just a kiss: They were the gymnastics darlings of a New York competition just before the 1976 Olympics. As they held up trophies, an onlooker said “Why don’t you lean over and give her a little kiss on the cheek?” Bart Conner did. Then he and Nadia Comaneci went their separate ways to Olympic glory, she to perfect-10 fame in the 1976 games, he to two gold medals in 1984. Shortly after Comaneci defected to the United States from Romania in 1989 they met again on a television show. A personal and professional relationship grew--they both model underwear in magazine advertisements--and she is moving to Norman, Okla., where Conner has a gymnastics school. The kiss? He remembers it well. She can’t recall it.

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Trivia answer: The 1954 U.S. Open was the first tournament to be televised nationally.

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Quotebook: Chicago Bull Coach Phil Jackson, a former player, on pro basketball: “It’s a brutal sport. Just watch me walk sometime.”