CHAPEL HILL, N.C. \u2014 To restore its men\u2019s basketball program to the top of the college hoops hierarchy, North Carolina is putting its money where its mouth is.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, UNC signed former Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone to a six-year, $50 million contract, making him the second-highest paid coach in college basketball, behind only Kansas\u2019 Bill Self.<\/p>\n
Per the terms of his contract, the 54-year-old will earn $7.5 million this season, his first in college since serving as an assistant at Manhattan in 2001.<\/p>\n
\u201c(With) his track record, he warrants that type of compensation,\u201d incoming UNC athletic director Steve Newmark said. \u201cWe also believe this institution and where it sits in the basketball hierarchy should be paying for what we believe is elite.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Malone\u2019s salary \u2014 which increases to $9 million by the final year of the deal \u2014 is far from the only outsized financial commitment it took to land the 2023 NBA champion.<\/p>\n
Malone is eligible for cumulative annual bonuses totaling $1.475 million for various accomplishments and accolades, including NCAA Tournament performance and individual coaching awards. Among others, Malone will trigger a $100,000 bonus for winning the ACC regular-season title, and the same amount for winning the ACC tournament.<\/p>\n
Perhaps most eye-catching are the additional finances UNC is committing to get Malone\u2019s tenure off to a strong start. Per his contract, Malone will receive at least $6.75 million annually in revenue-sharing funds, which will go a long way toward building a winning roster. (North Carolina spent about $16 million on its roster last season, according to a source familiar with negotiations.) Multiple industry sources tell The Athletic that the expected band of competitive spending for next season is likely to be at least $10-12 million \u2014 meaning Malone\u2019s revenue-sharing pot goes quite a long way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to provide him the resources that enable him to succeed,\u201d Newmark said. \u201cWe fixate a lot on the economics \u2014 and I understand it, because it\u2019s new and different in college sports \u2014 but it\u2019s our obligation in the athletic department to equip coach Malone with what he needs to be able to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Malone emerged as a prime candidate in recent days after top college options Tommy Lloyd and Dusty May removed themselves from the process.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Malone will have a lucrative $4 million salary pool for his assistant coaches and staffers. According to multiple sources familiar with UNC\u2019s search, Malone is likely to retain assistant coaches Sean May and Patrick Sullivan \u2014 both former Tar Heel players \u2014 off Hubert Davis\u2019 staff, giving him a strong base of Chapel Hill connections.<\/p>\n
That salary pool is one of the largest in the country, and gives Malone the ability to hire a high-caliber staff that can ease his transition to the college game.<\/p>\n
Malone\u2019s buyout also aligns with some of the top college coaches in the nation, beginning at $8 million if Malone takes another job before April 1, 2027, and decreasing by $1.5 million every subsequent year. However, if North Carolina terminates Malone\u2019s contract before its completion, the school owes him 80 percent of the remaining money left on his deal \u2014 meaning the school is pot-committed to making its big swing work.<\/p>\n
Industry sources said Malone was expected to be considered for multiple NBA vacancies in the coming weeks before accepting the UNC job.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoach Malone is well compensated,\u201d Newmark added, \u201cbut if you look at where he has been compensated in the NBA, he\u2019s taken this because he\u2019s passionate about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In many ways, Malone\u2019s exorbitant deal mirrors the financial carrot UNC dangled to land six-time Super Bowl winner Bill Belichick as its football coach in December 2024.<\/p>\n
But given UNC basketball\u2019s pedigree, and Malone\u2019s much more recent track record of success, there\u2019s reason to believe the Tar Heels\u2019 increased investment could immediately pay dividends in restoring them to the sport\u2019s elite tier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHAPEL HILL, N.C. \u2014 To restore its men\u2019s basketball program to the top of the college hoops hierarchy,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":860211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,5480,49,48,4717],"class_list":{"0":"post-860210","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-mens-college-basketball","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-north-carolina-tar-heels"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116367185917121242","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}