December 14, 1991 - As the story goes, following the Team USA Selection Committee's decision to bypass 1990 NBA Finals MVP Isiah Thomas in favor of John Stockton for its 1992 Olympic basketball roster, Thomas just happened to explode for 44 points in first matchup with Stockton near the start of the 1990-91 regular season (his highest point total since 1983).
"It just sort of happened," Thomas said at the time.
And as the story goes, in the first matchup following Thomas' circumstantial scoring statement, John Stockton's 6-foot-9, 250-pound teammate Karl Malone just happened to turn his body and lead with his elbow while contesting an Isiah Thomas layup early in the first quarter.
The results were equal parts chaotic and gruesome. As blood poured down the face of a flattened and dazed Thomas, Pistons reserve guard Darrell Walker took a swing at Malone before being corralled toward the locker room. Meanwhile, Bill Laimbeer and Pistons coach Chuck Daly vacillated between looking after their fallen brethren and working over officials to ensure Malone receive his proper comeuppance.
Laimbeer, the godfather of excessively physical fouls with an honorary degree in sweeping the leg, knew shenanigans when he saw them.
"That was basically a premeditated situation," Laimbeer assessed. "Why? Because he lit them up for 44 last time and (Malone) didn't want to embarrass Stockton again."
Shooing away a stretcher, Thomas rose to his feet under his own power, where he was then quickly transported to LDS Hospital, where he received 47 stitches (at least 15 inside, over a two dozen outside, according to Daly).
Nonetheless, three quarters later, a familiar (albeit slightly disfigured) face checked back into the ballgame. Cleared of any sustained neurological trauma, Thomas returned to play the final six minutes of a contest he'd begun just over 47 stitches ago. His late jumper and two free throws helped push the Pistons to the precipice of victory, but a last second Isiah Thomas layup and heave went begging, sealing a 102-100 Jazz victory.
Afterward, Thomas commented on his improvised traffic accident with Malone's elbow.
“It felt like I’d been shot in the head,” Thomas said. “It was a hard hit. . . . I was a little scared."
Malone, meanwhile, played the plausible deniability & deflect card - a classic in the era of bodyslams and clotheslines.
“I didn’t do it intentionally,” he said as he left the Delta Center. “It’s amazing. (The Pistons) do the intentional . . . like they do and get away with it. But we do something clean--we do something by accident--and they make a big deal like that.”
Official Ed Middleton disagreed. "Isiah took the ball to the hoop. Karl went after him. In our estimation the foul . . . was a flagrant foul . . . the contact was unnecessary and excessive."
The NBA agreed. In addition to being ejected, Malone was fined $10,000 and suspended one game.
Years later, while accounting of a litany of his and his teammates own transgressions during the Bad Boys era, Thomas still believes Malone's elbow rises to the top.
"I think it was the dirtiest play I have experienced in the game of basketball in my life," Thomas said of the play. "I don't think I've seen anything as vicious and as intentional to a player. I still don't understand it."
Later in the decade, Malone would also render San Antonio Spurs center David Robinson unconscious with a swinging left elbow to the temple. • Video
Sources:
Mike Sorensen's 1991 recap: www.deseret.com/1991/12/15/18...
Terry Foster's 2014 re-visit: archive.sltrib.com/article.ph...
LA Times: www.latimes.com/archives/la-x...