Michael Malone still sounds the same.
“In my heart, I’m a coach, I’m the son of a coach,” Malone said in an interview with SiriusXM on The Starting Lineup. “It’s definitely something I’d love to get back in. I still have a bad taste in my mouth with how things ended in Denver, and I’d love to go out on my own terms.”
For now, the winningest head coach in Denver Nuggets history has a prominent new gig. Malone is joining ESPN’s “NBA Countdown” full-time this season after a spring trial run during the Western Conference finals. But the 2023 championship coach made it clear television isn’t the endgame.
“With that being said, what I’ve learned over my many years in this league is how important it is to go to work every day with people you care about, you trust, you respect and that are all pulling in the same direction,” Malone said. “So, when I have a chance to go back into the NBA, I just want to make sure I’m working with a group of people that are like-minded and share a common vision and are willing to do whatever it takes to make that vision become a reality. And if that situation pops up, I would love to get back on that sideline.”
These thoughts given to Frank Isola and Brian Scalabrine on Monday are likely the first of many quotes we hear from Malone about his Nuggets exit, as well as general thoughts about Denver this year.
“I’m a competitor, I’m a teacher, and I am a coach first and foremost. TV star, second.”
Former NBA Head Coach Michael Malone tells @TheFrankIsola & @Scalabrine whether he’d ever return to the sidelines. pic.twitter.com/5WlL8SQ4VK
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) September 22, 2025
Malone’s words land interestingly in Denver, where his decade-long tenure ended abruptly — and controversially — three games before the postseason last spring. The decision came amid a months-long cold war with then-general manager Calvin Booth over roster construction, rotation choices and how to support three-time MVP Nikola Jokic. Booth was also fired. Boss Josh Kroenke has publicly shouldered blame for the dynamics that led to the split, but he has also stood by the timing, saying he believed the team was headed toward the Play-In in 2025 if he didn’t act.
The pivot to David Adelman as interim coach jolted the group. The Nuggets beat the Clippers in Round 1 and pushed the top-seeded Thunder to a deciding Game 7 in Round 2 before bowing out. The 17-game audition convinced the organization to rip off Adelman’s interim tag in May. Players rallied to Adelman’s voice, and his emphasis this summer — organizational cohesion, building depth and, critically, shot-making under pressure — tracks with the gaps that showed up late in the season and throughout the playoffs.
In that context, Malone’s “on my own terms” line rings honest. Denver’s second title push frayed under the strain of incongruent timelines and philosophies. Booth favored backfilling with youth and cost-controlled pieces, while Malone leaned toward veteran reliability around Jokic and Jamal Murray. That clashing spilled from the front office to the floor, where the Nuggets’ identity — once rooted in resilience and defense — too often gave way to malaise. But a coach getting his own terms in the world of ever-increasing importance on GMs may be a tall ask.
Though it’s no wonder that Malone has a bad taste of being fired less than two years after winning a ring, even if there’s little question as to why it came in retrospect. Yet, Malone didn’t look inward in one of his first public statements about the falling out, instead pointing the finger elsewhere. The former executive likely deserves more of the blame for the environment, but that doesn’t make it less humiliating for either person that they contributed to the situation that shook the Nuggets to their literal core.
Malone’s coaching resume should keep him near the top of most shortlists for future openings: 471-327 with the Nuggets, a 44-36 playoff record, two trips to the Western Conference finals and Denver’s lone Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Yet this summer, even with his hometown Knicks job opening up, oddsmakers didn’t have him among the favorites. When New York moved on from Tom Thibodeau, teams rarely hire the same profile back-to-back, and Thibodeau and Malone share plenty of Van Gundy-tree DNA. The Knicks also signaled they wanted someone more likely to build out the full rotation and collaborate closely with the front office. On top of that, Malone’s sizeable Denver buyout is a practical deterrent to jumping right back onto a bench. New York ended up hiring Mike Brown.
That’s part of why the ESPN move made immediate sense. Malone’s voice — sharpened by years scheming for Jokic, and for and against LeBron James — played on TV this spring. He wasn’t shy then, and he isn’t shy now. He’s always looking for where the line is. A comment that some took as a slight toward Jokic while praising Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, came with context and denial later. That’s who Malone was as coach of the Nuggets and will be on TV — candid enough to make news, savvy enough to steer the conversation. It’s who he was as he smack-talked the Lakers into a sweep.
Both Booth and Malone lost the internal fight, but the franchise risked losing the war if it didn’t take a swing before the playoffs. Kroenke took that swing, and Adelman earned the job. Now the Nuggets’ priorities — more trust in the bench, more 3-point volume and, crucially, more clutch shot-making — are out in the open. That’s not an indictment of Malone’s entire tenure; it’s a reflection of where the league (and Denver’s roster) sit entering 2025-26.
As for Malone’s seat, he made his ask clear. After a decade of building Denver from plucky upstart into a champion, and after a messy ending that left scars all around, it tracks that the next move has to feel right, not just look right.
If that situation pops up, as he put it, expect him to go from a studio seat back to the bench. Until then, he’ll be on your screen, offering the same combo of edge and insight that defined his time in Denver.
“I’m a competitor, I’m a teacher,” Malone said. “I’m a coach first and foremost, TV star second.”
