For Lakers, No Mailing It In

More symmetry: Bryant welcomed that screen in Game 5 against the Spurs, using Malone to free himself up for a 20-footer with 11.5 seconds left in a game the Lakers would win miraculously at the buzzer.

Karl Malone, Mr. Playoff Heartbreak, was closer -- even if he no longer recognized the game he learned to play as a boy in Summerfield, La.

"I don't even let my kids watch those And1 tapes and that ESPN Streetball junk," he said. "It's bad for them. It shows them how not to use your teammates, how to just be about yourself and humiliating others on the court. Come on, that's basketball?"

He still puts the "old" in old-school, no?

Dusk at the park, that last run, is coming for Malone. He knows, having been two wins from a title twice -- including the time Michael Jordan swiped that ball from him and made that shot in Utah six years ago.

"It's a feeling that I can't really describe," Malone said. "I was devastated.

"But you know, I always went back to try to work harder, with the mind-set, 'I can do more this summer than I did the last.' That's something I try to instill in my children."

These fellowship-of-the-ring tales grow old quick in sports. Malone understands there are greater travesties than not winning a championship. He has three homes, six Harleys, three car dealerships, a logging company, 5,000 acres of timberland. Oh, and he married a Miss Idaho, who wakes up with him and looks out at the Pacific Ocean from their Newport Beach dwelling.

Going from $19.3 million in salary in Utah to $1.5 million this season -- what the Lakers could afford to pay him -- is not some great sacrifice in the real world. Not like the sacrifice his mother, Shirley Turner, made to raise 11 children by herself. Malone's father died of cancer when he was 3 and Shirley died of a heart attack last August.

But a title would make him more a part of his own family, complete the circle.

His daughter from a previous relationship, Cheryl Ford, won a title with the WNBA's Detroit Shock last season. Estranged for much of their lives, she leapt into his arms after the final game.

Kadee, 12, sidled up to her famous father on Saturday night. She is one of his six children with his wife, Kay.

"Hey, baby, congratulations," he said, cradling her head next to his midsection. Earlier in the afternoon, Kadee had led her softball team to a title, her first championship.

"She won hers today," Malone said. "Hopefully it's my time."