Ranking the 30 best NBA seasons from players over 35 years old
Utah Jazz. Karl Malone. 4. player. 118. . PF
The 30 best NBA seasons from players over 35 years old — 4. Karl Malone, 1998-99 (35)
65 MVP awards have been given out in the history of the NBA as of February 2021, and the youngest to ever hoist the trophy was Wes Unseld of the Baltimore Bullets in 1968-69, just 22 years old. On the other end of the spectrum, only twice has a player been 35 or older when he received MVP honors, the oldest being Karl Malone in 1998-99.
The lockout-shortened season was bizarre on many levels, from 50 games crammed into a half-season’s worth of days, to the immense power vacuum left by the breaking up of the dynastic Chicago Bulls. One player seemingly unaffected by the strangeness was Karl Malone, who continued to dominate opposing defenses en route to his second MVP award.
Malone at 35 dropped in 23.8 points and 9.4 rebounds per game, leading the league in made free throws. Malone was third in total points behind Shaquille O’Neal and Allen Iverson. In a battle of the bigs O’Neal, Malone, Tim Duncan and Alonzo Mourning all vied for the top spot in most advanced metrics. Malone finished second in BPM and first in win shares.
The Jazz won a whopping 37 of their 50 games, a 61-win pace in the lockout season. In the playoffs Malone and the Jazz beat the Sacramento Kings in the first round and fell to the Portland Trail Blazers in the second, where Scottie Pippen had migrated after the breaking of the Bulls.
Malone won the Most Valuable Player award that season, gaining 44 of the 118 first-place votes – just 37.2 percent. In one of the most closely contested MVP votes in NBA history, Malone just beat out Mourning (773 points) and Duncan (740) by winning 827 points. For a player who never broke through to win a championship trophy, two MVP awards sound about right for one of the greatest power forwards in NBA history.