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The degrees of separation that come between NBA legends Karl Malone and Kobe Bryant are hairline-thin. For starters, Bryant recently surpassed Michael Jordan at #3 on the league’s all-time scoring list with only Malone and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar standing his way. And after his long but championship-devoid tenure with the Utah Jazz, Malone joined the 2003-2004 Los Angeles Lakers squad where he and Bryant shared a pretty eventful and tenuous relationship.

Malone was accused of trying to hit on Bryant’s wife, Vanessa.

During yesterday’s Huffington Post Live chat, The Mailman revealed that he’s not harboring any grudges but if it has to go down, so be it.

“Here’s the thing [about it],” he explains to Marc Lamont Hill. “I’m a grown man. Kobe’s a grown man, too. That’s how man’s do it. If you go the other route, You kind of go down in my book a little book.” He then went on to lay it all out on the table.

“Are we cool? I don’t hold grudges. If Kobe don’t like me today, that’s Kobe Bryant’s problem. I come in peace but I do prepare for war if I have to. I love Westerns. I’m old-school Western. Back in the day, when you had a beef, you didn’t go get guns and knives … we just go back in the back with no cameras and knuckle up. Get it over with.”

“It’s a standing offer,” Malone concludes. “Look, I don’t want no trouble. I don’t have a problem. People say whatever they want to say and that’s great. I’m 6-9, 272 [pounds] to be exact. I’m not hard to find. I don’t want no trouble. But if something got to go down, I’m not playing fair.”

For the record, it was alleged that Bryant’s wife asked Malone in 2004, “Hey, cowboy, what are you hunting?” to which he replied “I’m hunting for little Mexican girls.”

As they say in those there Westerns, those there is still “fightin’ words.”

Take a look at the video at the Huffington Post and relive this sour Kobe Bryant interview from 2004 down below.

Photo: Huffington Post