NBA's Karl Malone - Living His Dream - from Trucking '93

Karl Malone is a hard man, to keep up with these days. He is not traveling the globe as he did last summer as part of USA Basketball's Olympic gold medal winning 'Dream Team'. Instead Malone is shifting gears on America's highways as a lead driver in his own Utah based trucking company.

This may not sound like the typical off-season for an NBA All Star, but that is fine with Malone, "People always want to talk to me about basketball, but in the off season, I want to talk about trucking only." Malone said. "My truck is my sanctuary to get away from everything else."

Trucking '93 caught up with Malone at an AT&T Hoop It Up event in New York and after speaking with him we realize why people no longer think of him as a stereotypical athlete. Karl Malone is earning respect in the trucking industry.

Malone says his inclination with trucking started when he was a kid. "My mother owned a country store and I used to watch all the trucks come in," Malone said. "I told my brother one day I would grow up and own a truck." Basketball gave him the avenue and Malone took.

"Trucking grows on you and for me it was a childhood dream I never outgrew," Malone said.  Before he was married, he and his wife Stacy went on dates and she thought he was crazy because he would sometimes stop at truckstops just to watch the trucks go by. "Now she sees our trucks on the road and gets excited, so I guess trucking grew on her too," Malone chuckled.

His company, Malone Enterprises, is also growing. Currently running reefers and flatbeds on seven trucks, Malone hauls freight for S&P Weyerhauser, J,R, Simplot, Walker Potatoes, Sysco Foods, Hardee's, Albertson's, Con-Agra Foods, Diamond S Produce, and the Packaging Corporation of America.

"Several companies have approached me to haul freight for them because of who I am," Malone said. "We run top notch equipment and provide good service so we can keep them." All of Malone Enterprises trucks are customized Freightliners with Caterpillar engines, a 'store on wheels' as Malone calls them. We present our trucks to our customers and they find a lot of freight for us," Malone told Trucking '93.

Already a giant in the sports world, Malone does not want to be one of trucking's giants . Licensed in 25 states, Malone Enterprises is "trying to find our niche in the market ' according' to Malone. Concentrating on a few main shippers allows his drivers to have dedicated runs, make good money and get home usually every nine days. Malone's contract with the Utah Jazz is up in seven years and he plans to run his trucking company full time.