Somewhere behind the puff of Michael Jordan ’s cigar smoke, he’s still seething about an NBA MVP from a season he didn’t even play in.

Karl Malone winning the 1997 MVP by 11 more first-place votes and 29 more points won than Jordan was a big enough insult to him that he beat Malone’s Utah Jazz over six games in the NBA Finals, won the award the next season and then famously stole the ball from him with 20 seconds left before hitting the winning shot for his sixth ring in what was Jordan’s final game in a Chicago Bulls jersey. Watching the 1998-99 season while retired for the second but not last time must have irked Michael more.

History says Malone won his second MVP in 1999 – his first with Jordan out of the league. But that also was a lockout year in which the season was condensed t

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