NBA REPORT : Malone, 36, Signs With Milwaukee for Some Big Bucks

The Milwaukee Bucks have signed 36-year-old center Moses Malone to a two-year contract.

“Moses is an intense competitor with the heart of a lion and the spirit of a thoroughbred,” Buck Coach Del Harris said Wednesday. “He will give us a big lift in our rebounding and inside game.”

Malone, a 15-year veteran, became an unrestricted free agent when the Atlanta Hawks declined to sign him for the 1991-92 season on July 1.

Harris said according to his rating system, Malone averaged one rebound every 2.87 minutes last season, third best in the NBA behind Houston’s Akeem Olajuwon and Boston’s Robert Parish.

The Bucks did not release terms of the deal, but USA Today reported earlier that the Bucks and Malone were working on a contract that would pay him $1.6 million for the first season and just more than $2 million for the second.

Malone had his top scoring years while playing under Harris at Houston. He averaged 25.8, 27.8 and 31.1 points a game in the three seasons from 1979 to 1982.

The 6-foot-10, 265-pound Malone was the NBA’s most valuable player in 1979, 1982 and 1983.

He entered professional basketball in 1974 directly out of Petersburg (Va.) High School as an undergraduate selection of the Utah Stars of the ABA.

Malone played in all 82 games last season with the Hawks, starting 15. He averaged 10.6 points.

The Detroit Pistons released center Tree Rollins and guard Gerald Henderson. Their departure gave the Pistons more leeway in free-agent negotiations under the NBA’s salary cap of $11.7 million per team. Rollins, 36, and Henderson, 35, made a combined $950,000 last season.