You Tube Gold: Moses Malone

One of the greatest big men of all time

When Lefty Driesell took over at Maryland, UCLA was in the middle of its epic championship run and the Lefthander said that his goal was to make Maryland the “UCLA of the East.”

Driesell had the gift of gab and was a master salesman but that didn’t happen.

It might have though.

Lefty’s greatest recruiting coup failed when Moses Malone decided to skip Maryland and go directly to the ABA in 1974 when the concept of going to the pros out of high school was still sort of heretical to many people.

He made it though and became a legend, particularly with the 76ers, where he teamed with Julius Erving, Bobby Jones, Maurice Cheeks and Andrew Toney to pace Philly to the 1983 NBA title.

He was a relentless rebounder. He wasn’t the most overwhelming talent but no one ever outworked him.

He passed on some of his work ethic to teammate Charles Barkley, who came to the 76ers grossly out of shape. Barkley took inspiration from Malone and later became Hall of Famer himself.

If Malone had come to Maryland, and stayed four years as players generally did then, Driesell could have pulled off the whole UCLA thing. We’ll never know of course.

Sadly, Malone died in 2015 of cardiovascular disease. He was just 60.