Sometimes you have to give credit where credit is due — and when its due.
We lost the opportunity to do that with Moses Malone, when the legendary Hall-of-Fame center died of natural causes this Sept. 13 — and before the Sixers organization lifted up No. 2 to the rafters as we cheered along. The team still can retire Malone’s jersey, and certainly we have sung his praises over the last few days, but we must do better at recognizing greatness when those great ones are still alive.
In his prime, Malone wasn’t the type to disappoint. From 1980 to 1985, he led the league in rebounds. He was a three-time NBA Most Valuable Player and a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Prior to Malone’s entry, the Sixers had come close to winning a championship. But coming close to winning is not the same as winning. Malone came in with one job. It was a big job, even for a big man. But flanked by the likes of Julius “Dr. J.” Erving, Maurice Cheeks, Andrew Toney and Bobby Jones, the Sixers got it done.
As much as we may “bleed green” or get fanatical about the Phillies, our sports teams of the past several years can’t say they’ve gotten it done. With the next season, the next big-ticket free agent, the next team’s chemistry, we tell ourselves, we will assume that perch. But championships don’t come easy.
Tribune columnist Daryl Bell today quoted such sports notables as Billy Cunningham saying there was nothing about Malone’s record that would detract from his jersey having been retired already. So maybe the Sixers, like society in general, was just not paying attention, or postponed the acknowledgment with a shrug of “maybe next year.”
But in basketball, as in life, we don’t always have next year.
Along with Allen Iverson’s No. 3, Charles Barkley’s No. 34, Maurice Cheeks’ No. 10, Wilt Chamberlain’s No. 13, Julius Erving’s No. 6 and Billy Cunninghman’s No. 32, the Sixers should retire Moses Malone’s No. 2.
And, we should view the lost opportunity to do so while he was alive as a reminder to not wait for another time to say to those who deserve it, your contribution was timeless.
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