Moses Malone a legend fo-ever

THE LEGEND goes like this: That once upon a time, a man named Moses Malone came upon this land and foresaw great things - not only the 1983 NBA championship for the Philadelphia 76ers, but historic domination for his team. The legend is wrapped up in one phrase, one bold prediction on the eve of the playoffs, indelible partly because of its sheer audacity and partly because of Malone's particular patois.

One phrase:

Fo', fo', fo'.

Of course, most stories are never quite that simple and neither is this one. The basics are true. Malone was a predicting kind of guy. After being acquired in an offseason trade, he announced one day during training camp that he thought the Sixers would win 70 games during the upcoming regular season. This was a mouthful. That the team ended up winning 65 games did not diminish its excellence, but it did mark Malone as someone who might say something.

And so, at the end of the regular season, the Sixers spent a few days at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, their training camp home, for a little minicamp as they enjoyed a first-round playoff bye. The story then was Malone's sore knees, which the Sixers had rested in the last few games of the regular season. Would Malone play in the Sixers' first playoff round? Wouldn't he? That was the question during the minicamp, and the answer ended up being that Moses would play. That was the news of the day, delivered after a nighttime practice.

But deeper down in the story written by Phil Jasner was this:

Coach Billy Cunningham asked him the other day about his playoff attitude, and Malone replied, "Four, four, four."

That is how it was written in the Daily News: "Four, four, four." That is how it was written in the Inquirer, too. It was bold but maybe not so memorable. And if you read along in Jasner's story, he gave Malone a chance to explain what he meant by the quote - and Moses said that it should not necessarily be read as a prediction.

"I ain't saying we're gonna sweep everybody in four games," Malone said. "I'm just saying, if we have an idea of winning the championship, the best thing to do is win it as fast as we can.

"I like our chances, sure. I think we're the team to beat. We had the best record, we got a bye in the first round, we'll be ready. This is something we all want."

For the next couple of weeks, that is pretty much where it sat. People didn't write about it a lot, or harp on it. The Sixers' first series against the Knicks went according to form. The Sixers won in four games, and after the last one, that is when Daily News columnist Stan Hochman got involved. There is no way that he could know he was coining history - he was just getting through a writer's day, but also doing it in a way that more accurately reflected Malone's distinctive, gruff speech pattern.

And so, Stan wrote:

NEW YORK - The story goes that Billy Cunningham asked Moses Malone for his outlook on the playoffs before they began. Moses supposedly said, "Fo', fo', fo'," which translates into three four-game sweeps.

What Moses really said was, "Fe, fi, fo, fum." You know, just like that other giant, the one who stomped around the beanstalk penthouse. Surely you remember Jack and the beanstalk. How poor Jack swapped the family cow for a handful of bright beans. And how his angry mama tossed the beans out the window and how they grew into a beanstalk, and how Jack climbed the beanstalk one day and escaped with the goose that laid golden eggs.

What is this, some kind of fairy tale? Why not? The Sixers got Malone from Houston for lots of jack and a draft choice and Caldwell Jones. That was after Harold Katz swapped Darryl Dawkins, his pet calf, to the Nets in a deal that had everybody and his mama angry.

Darryl always said he was from another planet. Malone plays like it. And now Katz has the beanstalk, the giant, and the goose that lays golden eggs.

Malone did it again yesterday. Tucked the Sixers on his broad back and stomped around Madison Square's garden, trampling everything in sight. Played 38 minutes, scored 29 points. The Sixers won the series in fo' straight games. Fe and fi are next. The fum comes afterward.

That is where it started: fo', fo', fo'. Now it is the shorthand of history.

Blog: philly.com/DNL