Karl Malone Has ‘Standing Offer’ To Fight Kobe Bryant, Says “I’m Not Hard To Find”

Karl Malone has been out of the NBA for over a decade now, but his feud with Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant lives on to this day. The Mailman and the Black Mamba were teammates in Los Angeles during Malone’s final campaign in 2004, but their time together didn’t exactly end well  — according to Bryant, Malone made a pass at his wife, Vanessa, and betrayed what was once a very, very good friendship. Malone never denied making comments to Vanessa Bryant, but didn’t believe that said comments were out of line, though he did apologize to Kobe.

Fast forward 11 years and Malone is still being asked about his relationship with Kobe. During an excellent one-on-one interview with Marc Hill, he elaborated on the current situation with a little waffling — while he stated several times that he and Kobe “are cool” and that he “has no beef” with the Mamba, his longer quotes tell a little different story:

“We had a little issue. I don’t hold grudges…I love Westerns. I’m old-school Western. Back in the day, when you had a beef, you didn’t go get guns and knives…we just go back in the back with no cameras and knuckle up. Get it over with.

[…]

“It’s a standing offer. Look, I don’t want no trouble. I don’t have a problem. And people say whatever they want to say and that’s great. I’m 6-9, 272 [pounds] to be exact. I’m not hard to find. I don’t want no trouble. But if something got to go down, I’m not playing fair. If we got to get down, then we got to get down.”

And ultimately, that’s just fine with Karl:

“I’m a grown man. Kobe’s a grown man. And that’s how grown mans do it.”

You can find the full interview here.

h/t Huff Post Sports