"All my teeth came out" - Corey Maggette recalls learning how physically imposing Karl Malone really was

Story by

Story by
"All my teeth came out" - Corey Maggette recalls learning how physically imposing Karl Malone really was

Jonas Panerio · Basketball Network

Fri, Jan 2, 2026 ·

3 min read

Malone didn't care if it was preseason

Veterans often don't think much of preseason games, treating those as a way to get some sweat going while avoiding injuries. But that wasn't the case with Malone, who saw every opportunity to play as a chance to establish his dominance over his opponents. Meanwhile, Maggette saw his opportunity to get a highlight on the Mailman and tried to get a dunk over him. Unfortunately, Karl had other ideas.

"You know, it's Karl Malone, right? From the Jazz, you know his resume, whatever. He's big. He's huge. And so here I am, I'm like, 'Man, I'm about to try to go dunk on Karl Malone,'" Corey recalled .

"So I go off, and I take off, try to dunk, and Karl Malone tried to go up and block it. But instead of him blocking it, he elbowed me all in my face, bro. Like — boom. And all I know is that all my teeth came out," Corey narrated.

As much of a physical specimen as Corey was, Karl was one of a kind in the game. A 6'9" power forward who was a bastion of physicality and endurance, playing in 1,476 out of a possible 1,558 regular-season games in his 19-year career, Corey unfortunately discovered there was a price to pay for anybody who dared to step up to Karl.

"All my teeth. He shattered—he literally shattered my teeth," Maggette said. "I was in surgery, bro, for almost four years trying to get stuff fixed. He even cracked the bone in my mouth and everything."

Corey had to use wooden teeth

Maggette remembers every detail from that incident, recounting that as he was on the floor with blood gushing from his mouth, his Los Angeles Clippers teammate Quentin Richardson had the gall to point out the obvious.

"I'll never forget, man — when my teeth shattered, Q Rich, Quentin Richardson, was like, 'Man, bro, there go your teeth all on the floor right there, man,'" Corey stated with a smile.

Maggette was one of the toughest guys in the NBA during his playing years. However, he had to live with the effects of that Malone hit for years, leaving him with wooden teeth for quite some time.

"For the next year, and I don't know if people knew, I had like wooden teeth in my mouth. Like wooden teeth. Because I had to keep doing those scans, right? They had to keep scanning it, dude. They kept working with the bone and trying to fix the bone and everything. So I was walking around with wooden teeth in my mouth," Corey said. "And I'll never forget, bro — I went to dinner. I went to dinner, bro, and I'm at dinner and what do I do? My teeth kept falling out. I kept going back to the bathroom, bro. It was crazy, man."

Malone earned the nickname "Mailman" because of his consistency and toughness. Unfortunately for Maggette, it wasn't just points that Malone delivered on the court but also elbows that left him scarred for life.

This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Jan 2, 2026, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.