Michael Malone stood at a podium inside the Dean E. Smith Center on Tuesday evening, wearing a Dean Smith lapel pin on his jacket, and did something Denver Nuggets fans haven’t seen in a long time: he looked genuinely at peace.
The man who coached the Nuggets to their only NBA championship in 2023, who went 471-327 in a decade on Denver’s sideline as the winningest coach in franchise history, is now the head men’s basketball coach at the University of North Carolina. UNC is paying him more than $8.3 million per year across a six-year deal — roughly $50 million total — making him one of the five highest-paid coaches in college basketball. The guy the Nuggets fired with three games left in last year’s regular season, who has taken a few jabs at his old team on ESPN since, just landed one of the most prestigious coaching jobs in all of basketball, at any level. Good for him, it’s deserved.
If you watched Tuesday’s introductory press conference, it was vintage Malone. Self-deprecating, emotional, fiery, funny. He cracked jokes about UNC executive Steve Newmark not bringing his wife flowers when he flew out to pitch him the job on Easter Sunday. He told his daughter Bridgette, a UNC volleyball player, to stop hanging out at the bars. He playfully corrected a reporter, who framed his year away from basketball as a choice — “You make it sound like I had a choice. I was fired.” That’s the Malone Denver got to know for a decade. No filter. No polish. Just honest.
The moments that hit hardest from a a Mile High lens were the ones where his time with the Nuggets kept bleeding through.
When asked about his basketball philosophy, Malone described the exact culture he built here: “Being a work team. A team that is completely selfless. Get over yourself. Check your ego out the door. We can accomplish a hell of a lot more as a team. We over me.”
When asked about style of play, it was the same defensive-first, share-the-ball identity that powered Denver’s title run: “I believe defense wins championships. Your defense is the beginning of your offense… If you can defend, you can rebound. What does that allow you to do? That allows you to get out and run.”
Nuggets fans have heard that sermon before. Now Chapel Hill gets to hear it.
Back in Denver, the reaction from the current roster was gracious.
“Shoutout to Coach Malone,” Jamal Murray said. “I think he’ll be great. I think he’ll be a great college coach.”
“I think it’s gonna be good for him,” Aaron Gordon added. “I think it’ll be a change of pace.”
And David Adelman, the man who replaced Malone and served as his assistant for years, said the thing that stings a little if you’re a Denver fan: “He belongs coaching, and that’s what he should be doing.”
He does. And he’ll be just as good at the college level.
Malone was emotional Tuesday when he talked about his late father, a high school coach and Smith devotee who passed about two years ago.
“I know he’s looking down today and he’s very, very proud. And I wish he was here,” he said.
He talked about how being fired forced him to reconnect with his family, to be a better husband and father. He spent the fall at his daughter’s volleyball matches and sitting courtside at UNC basketball practices after Hubert Davis graciously opened the door. But you could tell from the very first word Tuesday night that the man needed to coach again.
“People keep asking me, why would you leave a chance of coaching in the NBA again?” Malone said. “It wasn’t an easy decision, but what I kept thinking about was I have a chance to be a part of something special — the history, the tradition — to be a part of something much bigger than myself.”
He said it was the only college job he’d ever consider. That any other school, he wouldn’t have even answered the phone. And when Newmark flew to his house on Easter and they spent five hours together, Malone knew: “I’m not only taking this job, I’m attacking this job.”
That’s what Denver got for a decade. The fire and the love. Malone recalled Gregg Popovich telling him when he landed his first NBA head coaching job in Sacramento: “Be yourself. You’re Irish, you’re fiery, and you’re tough. You can do that only if your players know you love them.” That’s the coach who built Denver’s championship culture, who fought for Jamal when the world doubted him, who unlocked Jokic and turned an afterthought franchise into one he grand marshal-ed in a parade down 17th Street.
Now the Tar Heels gets their turn with Malone. They’re gonna love it.
