Malone’s most recent job was with the Denver Nuggets, where he coached 10 seasons and helped lead them to the 2023 NBA title.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. β Michael Malone, who led the Denver Nuggets to the 2023 NBA championship, has been hired as the University of North Carolina’s next men’s basketball head coach, the school announced on Tuesday.
Malone was formally introduced at a news conference at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, where he said UNC was the only college job he would have considered.
“If any other job called, I wouldn’t even answer the phone,” Malone said.
Malone, a 24-year NBA veteran, spent 10 seasons as Denver’s head coach and is the winningest coach in Nuggets history with 471 wins. He also served two seasons as head coach of the Sacramento Kings, giving him 510 regular-season wins overall as a head coach.
Executive Associate Athletic Director Steve Newmark said Malone was the first coach the program contacted during the search. Newmark eventually flew to Malone’s home on Easter Sunday, and the two spent five hours together before Malone agreed to take the job.
“Every time I said no, I was regretting it,” Malone said. “I know this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This wasn’t a situation where I could say, ‘Now is not the right time.’ It was now or never.”
A Queens, N.Y., native, Malone spent 12 years as an NBA assistant before becoming a head coach, working with the New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers, New Orleans Hornets and Golden State Warriors. During that time, he coached LeBron James in Cleveland and Steph Curry and Klay Thompson in Golden State.
In Denver, Malone coached three-time MVP Nikola Jokic and guided the Nuggets to the 2023 title β their first in franchise history. His teams averaged 50.3 wins over his final seven seasons, including a franchise-record-tying 57 in 2023-24.
Malone described himself as a defensive-minded coach who wants to play at a fast pace.
“If you can defend and rebound, what does that allow you to do? It allows you to get out and run,” Malone said. “I want to be a team that defends and rebounds at a high level, gets out and runs, and plays at a fast pace, up-tempo basketball, attacking before they get set.”
He also made clear he has no interest in shying away from the program’s rivalries.
“I didn’t come here to be second best,” Malone said. “I didn’t come here to lose in the first round of the ACC tournament. I came here to win at a high level, and if you’re a competitor, you don’t run from that. You run towards it.”
Malone said he met with UNC players on Tuesday afternoon to share his vision before the news conference.
“I told them my vision, what I expect from them, our style of play, and what our culture is going to be,” he said. “My only goal is to get better every day. If you do that every single day, you put yourself in a position to have success.”
Among the players Malone has coached with UNC ties are Jamison, Danny Green and Harrison Barnes. He also credited former coach Roy Williams, who attended Tuesday’s event, as influential in his decision to take the job.
“Every time I thought about it, I’d say, ‘This is North Carolina. This is Roy Williams. This is Dean Smith. This is Coach Guthridge,'” Malone said. “I wanted to be a part of something so much bigger than me.”
Malone also paid tribute to his late father, Brendan Malone, a longtime NBA coach and lifelong Carolina fan who died about two years ago.
“I know he’s looking down today and he’s very, very proud,” Malone said. “I wish he was here.”
Before his NBA career, Malone spent seven seasons as a college assistant at Oakland University, Providence, Virginia and Manhattan College.
He and his wife, Jocelyn, have two daughters. His younger daughter, Bridget, is a freshman volleyball player at UNC.