Isiah Thomas recalls Karl Malone's 1991 foul on him, 'Dirtiest play I have experienced'

With a number of scoring records to his name, it can be easy to forget that Karl Malone also excelled defensively. He was consecutively named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team between 1997 and 1999, and his 11,406 career defensive rebounds are an NBA record that may never be broken.

However, Malone's hard defense had its share of controversial moments. 

For example, when the Utah Jazz hosted the Detroit Pistons during in the 1991-92 season, Malone laid a vicious elbow into Isiah Thomas' head as the point guard was driving to the hoop. Malone was ejected, while Thomas was hospitalized, required 47 stitches, and missed two games.

Here's footage of the incident:

For the sake of context, USA Basketball had chosen Malone's teammate John Stockton over Thomas for their 1992 Olympic team, and following the decision, Thomas had proceeded to drop 44 points on the Jazz in their first meeting of the season. Bad blood between the two teams was nothing new.

Although 23 years have now passed since the incident, Thomas is still bitter about what happened.

"I think it was the dirtiest play I have experienced in the game of basketball in my life," Thomas told The Detroit News. "I don't think I've seen anything as vicious and as intentional to a player. I still don't understand it."

"My head; it was just ugly. When I got home my wife started crying. There was so much swelling on my head."

This should serve as a reminder that the Pistons' "Bad Boys" were also on the receiving end of some pretty vicious hits.