ALL STAR, NO GLITZ : IN THE MADNESS OF NBA, MALONE KEEPS LOW PROFILE.

Byline: Eric Noland Daily News Staff Writer

Glamour has come to be highly esteemed in the NBA, such that the most-celebrated characters are Shaquille O'Neal, who records rap CDs; Michael Jordan, who pitches every product on the shelves, and Dennis Rodman, who shows up at the Academy Awards dressed as the Mad Hatter.

Karl Malone bucks the trend, as if with a heave of one of his mighty shoulders, such that even after a dozen highly productive seasons, he remains a relatively well-kept secret.

Some of that is owed to fate - he has played his entire career for the Utah Jazz, in the obscurity of one of the league's tiniest markets. Much more of it is by design.

``Am I a limo kind of guy?'' he asked recently, wrinkling his nose. ``Absolutely not.''

It has probably cost him exposure and All-Star votes and perhaps some Most Valuable Player consideration. The veteran forward, who will lead the Jazz against the Clippers in a first-round playoff series that begins tonight at Utah, is again nipping at the heels of this year's MVP favorite, Jordan.

But Malone, who averaged 27.4 points and 9.9 rebounds this season at age 33, isn't about to attempt an image makeover at this grizzled stage of his career.

``I know what profession I'm in,'' he said, acknowledging the glitz that has come to envelop the NBA, ``but I also would rather get away from it. Some guys like it. It has a time and a place for me. And I also have a life (in which) I don't like that. I like to get away on some mountaintop or get on my Harleys or spend time with my family.

``If you like me for me, that's fine. I'm not going to be anybody I'm not. Do I have other interests? Absolutely.''

When some of the NBA's household names seek to dabble in Malone's world, it can be downright comical.

After years of keeping a wary distance from one another, Malone and O'Neal, the Lakers center, finally broke the ice when they met up in the weight room at a recent All-Star Game. They talked, they enjoyed each other, they vowed to get together off the court sometime.

Malone subsequently invited O'Neal to join him for a fishing trip. At his cabin in Alaska. Along the wilds of the Kenai River. Just a 3-point shot from the Arctic Circle.

Shaq, uh, couldn't make that one. Seems it conflicted with some prior commitments - on a movie set and in a recording studio.

Malone has scared off colleagues in another activity, too.

When he is not spending his free time hunting, fishing, cattle-ranching, enjoying the outdoors with his wife and three young children, or tearing up a piece of highway on one of his Harley-Davidson motorcycles, he works out. Hard. And not in some chic health spa but on his ranch, in Arkansas, in the dead of July, when the climate can be stifling.

``Sometimes, at the free-throw line,'' Malone said, ``I have guys come up to me: `Karl, Karl, I want to work out with you in the summer.' That's what they say. But when it comes down to it, it's, `I can get away, but I can't do it but two or three days.'

``Why even bother.''

Particularly in the face of this regimen. Malone wouldn't reveal details of a typical workout but summed it up by saying, ``usually 2-1/2 hours. Burnout stuff. From cardio to weights. And I do crazy stuff. Sometimes I get up at 6 in the morning. Or I go when it's raining. Or when it's 90 degrees out.

``Then, when this (season) starts, my body says, `This is kind of easy.' ''

The game might look as if it comes easily to Malone, but that's undoubtedly the payoff of years of intense weightlifting and running. He says the sports figures he has admired most in recent years are Nolan Ryan, Wayne Gretzky and Cal Ripken Jr., because ``those are guys who have done things all their lives (rigorous workout regimens), and in the last five or 10 years they're being rewarded by continuing to play.''

Utah coach Jerry Sloan, who has worked with and observed Malone for nine seasons now, said, ``He's not the same player he came in this league as. He changed his whole body around. Look at all the things he's done.

``How do you get to be a better player? Just showing up? I've never seen anybody work as hard as him off the floor.''

And then there is the toil on the floor.

Malone, who personally keyed the Jazz's surge by leading the team in scoring in 70 of its 81 regular-season games, scored 30 or more points 34 times this season. His average of 27.4 points per game ranked second in the league - and marked the 10th straight season in which he has averaged better than 25 points a contest.

And despite playing on a team that aligns Malone with the dubious talents of Greg Ostertag and Bryon Russell on the frontline, his rebounding average of 9.9 ranked 11th in the NBA.

Beginning with the Clippers series, Malone and the Jazz will be on a mission to write a refreshingly new finish to their season. In three of the past five years, they have reached the Western Conference finals, but they've never been able to clear that hump and reach the NBA Finals, losing to Portland in '92, Houston in '94 and Seattle last year.

But if the assumption is drawn that Utah, with Malone at age 33 and playmaker John Stockton at 35, is feeling a sense of urgency, forget it. ``We've been hearing it for five years,'' said Sloan. ``But people don't know what's inside these guys. They look at the (age) numbers, but these guys know how to take care of themselves.''

Malone probably personifies the point. In addition to reaping the benefits of his manic workouts, his vision hasn't been weakened by klieg lights, his lungs haven't been fouled by the smoky air of nightclubs, his time hasn't been wasted by the tomfoolery of celebrity games on MTV.

``Last year,'' he said, ``the critics said (of the Jazz), `This is the last time. Time running out. Time running out.'

``You know what? I like the way I'm aging.''

ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID

Karl Malone has quietly produced an impressive body of work over a 12-year NBA career, but he never has won the league's Most Valuable Player Award. ``If I finish second this year,'' he said, ``tell me that I finished 10th.'' Well, he is expected to be runner-up to Chicago's Michael Jordan. It would mark his 10th straight top-10 finish and his sixth finish in the top five.

SEASON MFx MVP WINNER

'87-88 8th Michael Jordan

'88-89 3rd Magic Johnson

'89-90 4th Magic Johnson

'90-91 5th Michael Jordan

'91-92 4th Michael Jordan

'92-93 8th Charles Barkley

'93-94 8th Hakeem Olajuwon

'94-95 3rd David Robinson

'95-96 7th Michael Jordan

x Malone's Finish

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos, Chart

Photo: (1-2--color) Utah's Karl Malone, who averaged 27.4 points this season, may not be the poster-type but don't tell it to the workers at the Delta Center.

Associated Press

(3) no caption (Karl Malone)

Chart: ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID (see text)