North Carolina basketball introduced new coach Michael Malone on Tuesday, April 7, and it paid the former NBA champion a pretty penny to join the program.

Malone, the former Denver Nuggets coach that won the NBA Finals in 2022-23, agreed to a six-year deal with the Tar Heels to replace Hubert Davis, a former assistant coach and player. Malone is the first North Carolina coach since 1952 to not have prior experience as an assistant coach or player.

REQUIRED READING: Michael Malone hired as UNC basketball coach; former NBA champion replaces Hubert Davis

Malone has 510 career NBA wins as a head coach across stints with the Nuggets and Sacramento Kings. He was fired prior to Denver’s playoff run last season, and has since been an NBA analyst for ESPN.

He’ll be tasked with revitalizing a program that has failed to meet North Carolina’s sky-high standards in recent years, as the Tar Heels are coming off back-to-back first-round NCAA Tournament exits. UNC blew an 18-point lead against No. 11 seed VCU in this year’s March Madness.

Here’s a look at Malone’s contract with North Carolina, which makes him among the highest-paid coaches in college basketball:

Michael Malone contract, salary

Malone agreed to a six-year contract worth $50 million, which makes him believed to be the second highest-paid coach at a public university behind Kansas’ Bill Self, according to the Fayetteville Observer. The deal runs through 2032.

He’ll make $7.5 million in 2026-27, with his salary raising to $8 million in 2027-28 and $8.5 million for the three following years. Malone will also have an assistant coaches salary pool of $4 million.

Malone’s contract also includes $1.475 million in single-season, incentive-based bonuses. Here’s a look:

• ACC Coach of the Year: $50,000
• National Coach of the Year: $100,000
• Academic Progress Rate >975: $75,000
• ACC Regular-Season Championship: $100,000
• ACC Tournament Championship: $100,000
• NCAA Sweet 16 Participation: $150,000
• NCAA Elite Eight Participation: $200,000
• NCAA Final Four Participation: $200,000
• NCAA Tournament Championship: $500,000

Michael Malone buyout

Malone’s buyout is set at $8 million, should he leave North Carolina or have his contract terminated before April 1, 2027. That number drops to $6.5 million in 2028, $5 million in 2029, $3.5 million in 2030, $2 million in 2031 and $500,000 in 2032, the final year of his current contract.

He will also receiver 80% of the total remaining amount of his contract if terminated without cause before April 1, 2032.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Michael Malone contract, buyout: New North Carolina coach’s salary

Ronny Mauricio ripped a single to right field to score Francisco Lindor in the bottom of the 10th to give the Mets a 4-3 walk-off win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday afternoon at Citi Field. 

Mauricio, in his first at-bat of the season after being added to the roster with Juan Soto on the IL, fell behind 0-2 on two high fastballs from ex-Met Paul Sewald, before ripping a third that was right in the heart of the plate, 107.1 mph off the bat. He improved to 5-for-9 as a pinch-hitter with the first walk-off hit of his career. 

On a cold and blustery afternoon, New York won its fourth straight game, improving to 3-1 in Queens and 7-4 overall. Arizona fell to 5-6 on the year and is now winless in four games away from home.

Here are the takeaways…

– Freddy Peralta allowed a leadoff single to Ketel Marte, after getting squeezed on a 2-2 pitch at the knees, and a two-out walk, but got through with no damage on 22 pitches in the first. He was in a spot of bother with one out in the second after a Lindor error and a walk put two men aboard. But the righty got out of things thanks to a curious Jorge Barrosa sac bunt and Marte going down swinging on the changeup. After an 11-pitch, 1-2-3 third, Peralta got around a two-out bunt single for a 20-pitch fourth.

Peralta, who pitched in numerous deep counts, got back-to-back strikeouts to start the fifth before allowing a third single of the game to send pitching coach JustinWillard out for a visit. After issuing a walk on a 3-2 count, Peralta lobbied to get one more batter. He couldn’t make it count as he lost control of a 1-2 curveball and plunked Gabriel Moreno to load the bases to end his afternoon.

Huascar Brazobán thought he got Adrian Del Castillo looking at a 1-2 changeup to end the threat, but an ABS challenge said otherwise. The very next pitch floated over the plate and was lined into right for a two-run single. Nolan Arenado followed with a broken-bat bloop double into center to plate another run before Brazobán finally ended the inning with the visitors ahead 3-2.

That closed the book on Peralta: 4.2 innings, three runs, three hits, three walks, one hit batter, and five strikeouts on 101 pitches (62 strikes).

– The Mets had the chance for a big inning in the first as Lindor and Bo Bichette singled through the right side of the infield and Jorge Polanco notched an infield hit to load the bases against Diamondbacks starter Zac Gallen. But after Luis Robert Jr. went down swinging, Brett Baty’s sac fly to center was all the Mets could muster. Gallen settled in and got through five innings, allowing one earned run on five hits with four walks and five strikeouts.

– Lindor doubled the Mets’ lead with two down in the second when he got help from the wind on a drive to right that fooled Corbin Carroll for a double over his head. Francisco Alvarez, who walked with two outs, managed to score from first on a poor relay throw from the right fielder. 

Lindor, who was hitless in his last 10 at-bats entering the game, got a chance with two on and two down in the fourth, but popped out in foul ground on the first pitch from Gallen as he’s still looking for his first RBI of the year and finished 2-for-5 with a strikeout swinging.

– With the Mets down a run and one out in the eighth, Jared Young entered as a pinch-hitter with runners on the corners and got the job done with a sac fly to right.

– Polanco cracked a single to start the home half of the eighth inning and was lifted for pinch-runner Tyrone Taylor, sporting the No. 28 for the first time. Polanco finished 2-for-4 with a strikeout swinging.

– After his RBI sac fly, Baty bounced into a 3-6 double play to end the third and struck out looking at three straight after getting ahead 3-0 to end the fifth, before grounding a single up the middle to cover the corners with one out in the eighth.

– Robert, after striking out swinging in the first, had a patient day, walking the next two times he was up, but went down looking in the eighth, looking at three straight after getting ahead 3-0. He finished 0-for-2.

– Alvarez, after a 4-for-11 series in San Fran, hustled out a broken-bat two-out single in the fourth and finished 1-for-3 with a walk. 

– Carson Benge, who entered hitless in his last 18 at-bats, worked a two-out walk in the fourth, and after a pair of ground outs, drove a ball to the warning track to start the ninth, but it went for an out as Barrosa made a sliding catch in right-center, 387-feet from the plate. He finished 0-for-3. 

– Bichette finished the day 1-for-5 with a strikeout swinging.

– Mark Vientos went 0-for-3 with a strikeout looking before being lifted for a pinch hitter in the eighth. 

– Marcus Semien went hitless in four at-bats.

Game MVP: Final four arms out of Mets’ bullpen

– Luis Garcia, after an eight-pitch, 1-2-3 sixth, got past a two-out double for a 15-pitch, scoreless seventh. The right-hander stayed in the game after taking a hard shot off his left forearm on a liner, 94.3 mph off Geraldo Perdomo‘s bat, when getting the second out.

Brooks Raley got the eighth and worked around a leadoff single from Arenado with two strikeouts. Devin Williams kept the score tied in the ninth despite allowing a pair of singles as he tallied two more strikeouts.

Luke Weaver, pitching with the free runner at second, fell behind 3-0 with two outs, but blew three straight fastballs past Tim Tawa for a 1-2-3 10th.

Combined: 5.0 scoreless innings, surrendering just four hits and no walks wth five strikeouts.

Highlights

What’s next

The two teams are back in action tomorrow afternoon with a 4:10 p.m. first pitch. 

David Peterson (4.66 ERA in 9.2 innings) gets the ball against right-hander Ryne Nelson (5.79 ERA in 9.1 innings).

Two in a row. Write it down somewhere. Frame it, even! The 2026 Orioles, playing a 3:10 afternoon matinee in the cold because apparently, temperate weather is too much to ask of Chicago even in late April, have won consecutive games for the first time this season. They did so courtesy of a 4-2 Tuesday afternoon win led by six strong innings from Trevor Rogers, three perfect innings from the bullpen, and a late rally kickstarted by new guys Blaze Alexander and Taylor Ward and capped off by Gunnar Henderson’s two-run bomb in the eighth.

It could have been easier—I certainly wish, against the lowly White Sox, that it had been. Entering the eighth, Baltimore was down 2-1, a frustrating lack of production given they’d already posted five hits and been walked seven times by what cannot exactly be a great Chicago pitching staff. Nonetheless, the eighth inning turned the tables. With one out, the new guys set to work. Blaze Alexander started the rally with a double to right. Taylor Ward followed him with a game-tying double into the right field corner, easily scoring the runner, who came home with blazing speed. (Sorry.) The White Sox changed relievers to challenge Gunnar with a lefty. Right decision, but bad result: Gunnar hammered a high sinker into the bleachers, and this was a 4-2 game.

Prior to that there wasn’t a ton of offense to report, although the hitters were not so much inept against Chicago’s Shane Smith (in the sense that many Orioles reached base) as inconsistent (in the sense that they didn’t score). Smith kept walking people—to wit, two in the first inning, two more in the second, plus a HBP of Blaze Alexander, and one in the fourth—but got enough strikeouts in key spots that he kept the O’s off the board. If I were Chicago’s manager, I’d say that five walks in 3.2 innings from my starting pitcher is not great, but Smith did allow zero runs and strike out eighth.

On that last, it feels like the Orioles’ team approach is partly to blame. When the starter is wild, it makes sense to take the walks. But it’s hard to deny, on a day the Birds struck out 13 times, that the approach is still frustratingly aggressive. In fact, every hitter in the starting lineup struck out at least once, except Alexander.

The one Orioles run prior to the eighth inning came thanks to yet another leadoff walk from Chicago. After Samuel Basallo took a free base, Tyler O’Neill was brought in to pinch-hit against lefty Sean Newcomb, and he delivered, with a well-timed single to advance Basallo to second. A groundout moved Basallo over, and Ryan Mountcastle plated the O’s first run with an RBI groundout off a big Newcomb curveball. Productive Outs for Orioles.

As for Orioles pitching, Trevor Rogers was very good today, which we’ve come to expect from our No. 1 starter, if not the rest of the rotation in April. The lefty went six innings, gave up two runs on six hits, struck out six, and walked none.

After a perfect two innings, he ran into some trouble in the third with two outs. With a runner on first, Rogers heaved a ball down the middle, and infielder Chase Meidroth served it into left field to put the White Sox up 1-0. A Lenyn Sosa single made it 2-0 immediately thereafter. This was a good piece of hitting where Sosa connected on a pitch maybe six inches off the dirt and golfed it into center field. I wouldn’t lay that one at Rogers’ feet. A popout ended the damage, and Rogers got through the fifth and sixth innings without great difficulty.

It wasn’t his prettiest start, given that Rogers needed 101 pitches to go six innings, but it’s a total luxury to have an ace who can pitch deep into games, especially given how unreliable the bullpen has been. Happily, that wasn’t the case today. Yennier Cano tossed a perfect seventh, including with one swinging strikeout. Grant Wolfram struck out two in the eight, but was lifted for Anthony Nunez after a HBP. Nunez threw a wild pitch, bringing up the faintest prospect of a blown inning, but with the count 3-2 against catcher Edgar Quero, he got a huge swinging strike three.

Closer Ryan Helsley then struck fear in our hearts with a leadoff walk in the ninth—apparently that’s just his thing now, as he’s walked a batter or more in his last three appearances. But that’s as nerve-inducing as things got: the O’s closer struck out Tristan Peters with 99 at the bottom of the zone, made slugger Munetaka Murakami swing through 100 at the corner, and got Derek Hill to fly out to the end the game. When Helsley is on, it’s simply beautiful stuff. Save No. 4, O’s win. Now everybody go party.

The Orioles are 5-6. This may not inspire visions of a ticker-tape parade come October, but they are, however improbably, sitting pretty in third in the AL East, just a game back of Tampa Bay at the time of this writing. It’s April, after all, and anything can still happen.

Who is your vote for Most Birdland Player today? Gunnar Henderson, who went 2-for-4 with the big bomb in the eighth? Blaze Alexander, who took one for the team, stole a base, started the rally in the eighth, and is hitting .320 in the nine spot? Your team ace, Trevor Rogers, who gave six good innings even on what was not his best day? Let us know in the comments.

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NBA. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Suns fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.

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Phoenix Suns head coach Jordan Ott did something different in the team’s 120-110 win over the Chicago Bulls on Sunday. Collin Gillespie and Royce O’Neale were not in the starting lineup. With the squad mostly at full strength, Phoenix went with Devin Booker, Jalen Green, Jordan Goodwin, Dillon Brooks, and Mark Williams, with O’Neale and Gillespie, who have started the first and third most games for the Suns this year, respectively, coming off the bench.

Along with starting the game with the second unit, both played fewer minutes than they usually do. The change comes after Phoenix suffered two straight losses, including a 20-point defeat to the Charlotte Hornets, which prompted Ott to say everything was “on the table” after the game.

It’s not a surprise O’Neale went to the bench. With Dillon Brooks returning, O’Neale and the starting power forward spot looked to be Brooks’ once he got up to speed after returning from his broken hand. O’Neale and Brooks have both started together this year, but not many games with Jalen Green and Devin Booker both healthy.

Collin Gillespie starting the game with the second unit is a noticeable change in tactics from the Suns. Goodwin replaced him in the starting lineup. They both played 24 minutes, but Phoenix deciding to go with the more physical, better defending Goodwin signals a change in approach. Gillespie has been struggling with his shot since the start of March. He’s shooting 37% from the field and 36% from three; both well below his season averages.

As the Suns continue to get closer to the end of the regular season. Rotations and lineups should continue to tighten up to build some continuity. The team played just nine guys on Sunday. After being integral parts of the rotation in March, rookies Rasheer Fleming and Khaman Maluach didn’t play at all in the team’s last game. For a squad that has not been uniformly healthy all year, it’s noteworthy that the team is shortening its rotation when everyone but Haywood Highsmith is active.

Often in the playoffs, teams shorten their rotations. Pat Riley’s famous quote, “use eight, rotate seven, play six and trust five,” is the strategy many squads deploy when a best-of-seven series begins.

The Suns have four games left and three against Western Conference teams who will be in the top-six of the playoff standings. Another nearly clean injury report tonight against the Houston Rockets, the Suns will continue to show their cards on how their rotations look heading into the play-in and potentially the playoffs.

If Gillespie and O’Neale continue to come off the bench, would you agree with the decision? Why or why not?

The Cleveland Cavaliers don’t have much to play for at this time of the season. They’ve secured home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs and don’t have much of a chance of moving up from the fourth spot to the third with three games left in the season. As of now, that doesn’t seem like it’s going to deter the Cavs from trying to finish strong.

The Cavs could have their full complement of players for Wednesday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks, which could be a preview for their first-round matchup. Cleveland has no players on the injury report due to rest.

That said, Donovan Mitchell could be missing the game with an ankle injury. He twisted his ankle late in the win over the Indiana Pacers on Sunday and sat out against the Memphis Grizzlies the following evening. After Sunday’s game, he told reporters that his ankle was fine and that it wasn’t even worth asking him about. We’ll see if he’s able to go on Wednesday.

The Cavs might be getting two key players back for Wednesday. Both Dean Wade (ankle) and Jaylon Tyson (toe) have been upgraded to questionable. Wade has missed the team’s last seven games. Tyson has been absent for the last nine.

Thomas Bryant will be missing this game with a calf strain.

Unlike the Cavs, the Hawks do have something to play for. Three and a half games separate spots five through 10 in the Eastern Conference standings. The Hawks are likely to get the fifth seed, given they’re a game and a half up on the Toronto Raptors, but there’s a chance that they could fall into the Play-In Tournament depending on how the final three games go.

As such, Atlanta won’t be resting any of their rotation players either. Jock Landale is the only player on a standard contract who will be missing Wednesday’s game.

Victor Wembanyama has been listed as doubtful for Wednesday’s game against the Trail Blazers, but “there’s confidence” he will suit up for one of the Spurs’ last three games, achieving award eligibility, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.

Wembanyama suffered the injury when he collided with Paul George in the second quarter of the Spurs’ Monday night win over the 76ers. Initially, he went to the locker room only to return to the game before asking to be subbed out before the break. He was ruled out for the second half due to what was described by the team as a rib contusion.

The big man underwent X-rays, which came back negative, but he was expected to have additional tests, according to what Charania said in an earlier appearance on ESPN’s NBA Today. It seems the results were encouraging, since he hasn’t been listed as out for the next game. Still, being listed as doubtful means he’s very unlikely to play.

Rib contusions don’t tend to cause many missed games, with the average time sitting out being 4.4 days and 1.1 games, according to Jeff Stotts of In Street Clothes, an athletic trainer who has been documenting NBA injuries for years.

Victor Wembanyama Injury News: Spurs may have dodged a bullet here as rib contusions don’t often result in significant missed time (Average ~1.1 games or 4 days). However, ribs can be tricky to x-ray & I’m betting Wemby undergoes a more detailed exam soon.

— Jeff Stotts (@InStreetClothes) April 7, 2026

The Spurs have three games left and have claimed the second seed in the West. Normally, they would err on the side of caution even if everything looks good and shut down Wembanyama for the rest of the regular season. The problem is, not suiting up against the Trail Blazers, Mavericks, and Nuggets could cost Wembanyama some very important individual accolades.

Wembanyama needs to play 20 minutes or more for one more game to get to the misguided 65-game threshold the NBA imposes to be eligible for end-of-season awards. If he does, he’s the favorite to win Defensive Player of the Year, an MVP candidate, and a likely first-team All-NBA selection. Playoff success is the ultimate goal, but Wemby deserves recognition for a fantastic year, which could be denied if he can’t play at least once more in the regular season.

Stephon Castle has also been listed as doubtful for the matchup against the Trail Blazers due to right knee soreness, per the Spurs’ injury report.

Wembanyama is averaging 24.8 points, 11.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists, a steal, and a league-leading 3.1 blocks in just 29.2 minutes per game this season.

CHICAGO (AP) — A day after the Chicago Bulls fired their top two basketball executives, president and CEO Michael Reinsdorf made it clear: He wants coach Billy Donovan to remain in his job.

Reinsdorf said Tuesday that candidates can pretty much forget about bringing in their own coach, assuming Donovan chooses to return after this season.

“If I interview someone and they’re not sold on Billy and they’re not sold on a Hall of Fame coach, they’re not sold on a person who has won championships in college, who has gone deep in the playoffs with Oklahoma City, who I believe every year with the Chicago Bulls given the team he was given I think he achieved really good results,” Reinsdorf said. “Not the results that we wanted, but that’s not because of Billy. If someone’s not interested in Billy as our coach … then they’re probably not the right candidate for us.”

The Bulls made sweeping changes to their front office on Monday, firing executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley after a six-year run produced just one playoff appearance.

The 60-year-old Donovan has consistently said he still has a passion for coaching. He will meet with ownership after the season to discuss his future.

Donovan could seek another NBA coaching job or return to the college game, though the most prominent opening is off the table with North Carolina hiring Michael Malone. The Bulls could also give him a bigger say in basketball operations while continuing as coach.

“I don’t think it’s going to take Billy a long time to come to a conclusion on what he wants to do,” Reinsdorf said. “I don’t think the draft or any of that’s going to come into play. The season ends next week. We’ll sit down with Billy as soon as possible, and we’ll find out where his head’s at.”

Donovan told reporters prior to the Bulls’ game at Washington on Tuesday that he needs to see what the organization’s plan is before he makes a decision.

Donovan had a 467-411 record in 11 seasons as an NBA head coach with Oklahoma City and Chicago when the day began. He led Florida to back-to-back NCAA championships during a 19-year run, and was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in September.

Donovan was arguably the top candidate on the market when the Bulls hired him in September 2020, a few months after Karnisovas and Eversley got their jobs. Chicago was 224-254 during their tenure. The Bulls entered Tuesday at 29-49 and missing the playoffs for the fourth straight year.

“We want to build this for the long term, so I don’t want to be just good for one or two years,” Reinsdorf said. “I want it to be year in and year out, we have a chance to be competitive and win. Maybe some of those years we can go all the way. But it’s about long-term success, not just one- or two-year windows.”

Reinsdorf said he is looking for someone who is “process-oriented” and “not afraid to pull the trigger” to lead the basketball operation. He also wants a better communicator.

“I want someone who’s really strong in communication not just internally within the organization, but also externally when he’s talking to people like you, talking to our fans,” Reinsdorf said. “I think that’s really important. What are we trying to accomplish? What is the plan? Our fans have a right to understand what we’re trying to accomplish so I think that’s incredibly, incredibly important.”

Reinsdorf said the Bulls will hire a search firm, something they didn’t do last time, and that longtime head of basketball operations and current advisor John Paxson will assist in the process. He will also get to meet candidates in person, which he couldn’t do last time because of the pandemic.

Reinsdorf is not sure if the chain of command will remain the same, with a basketball operations chief and a general manager reporting to that person.

“I’m not making that decision now,” he said. “When we start talking to candidates and we start talking to people, I want to hear what their thoughts are. How are they going to build out their organizations? I think that’s really important.”

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Milwaukee Bucks guard Kevin Porter Jr. has undergone arthroscopic surgery on his right knee and will miss the rest of the season.

The Bucks announced that Porter had undergone the procedure Tuesday in Vail, Colorado. Dr. Tom Hackett at The Steadman Clinic performed the surgery.

“It started eight minutes into the first game (of the season),” Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers said before the Bucks’ game in Brooklyn against the Nets. “When you look at how he played overall, he had a hell of a year and was going to have even a better year but the injury thing caught him eight minutes into our first game and he never really recovered from that.”

The 25-year-old Porter last played on March 17. He has averaged 17.4 points, 7.4 assists and 5.2 rebounds in 38 games this season.

Rivers said Porter told him Sunday that “man, I didn’t come through for you.”

“And I said, ‘No, you’re fine. You just got injured. It’s part of the game and it happens,’” Rivers replied.

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AP freelance writer Denis Gorman in New York contributed to this report.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

Cade Horton is done for the year.

The burgeoning Chicago Cubs starting pitcher is set to undergo season-ending surgery after sustaining damage in the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, manager Craig Counsell announced Tuesday.

Horton, the runner-up for the 2025 NL Rookie of the Year award, dazzled during his first start of the 2026 campaign, allowing just two runs and one walk over 6 1/3 innings against the Washington Nationals on March 28.

About a week later, on April 3, the right-handed hurler exited in the second-inning vs. the Cleveland Guardians. That’s when Horton’s velocity dropped. He called for an athletic trainer and then left the game with what was later described as a forearm strain.

When speaking to reporters Tuesday, Counsell didn’t specify what procedure Horton will have, and the third-year Cubs skipper said a date for the operation hasn’t been set yet, according to MLB.com.

The Cubs selected the 24-year-old Horton with the No. 7 pick in the 2022 MLB Draft.

Injuries have been a problem for Horton throughout his career. In 2021, as a freshman at Oklahoma, he had Tommy John surgery. He experienced a shoulder setback in 2024, and last year he was sidelined for the playoffs due to a rib issue.

His star potential is undeniable, evidenced by his head-turning first season in the bigs. In 2025, Horton recorded a 2.67 ERA across 118 innings. Along the way, he spun 29 straight frames of shutout ball, recording the longest scoreless innings streak of the season.

Losing Horton is a major blow to a Cubs pitching staff already dealing with several injuries.

On Monday, the team’s Opening Day starter, Matthew Boyd, landed on the 15-day injured list due to a biceps strain. Lefty Justin Steele is healing from his own elbow procedure, which he had last spring. Steele is in line for a return to the majors in the first half of this season, even by Memorial Day, according to ESPN, and Boyd is reportedly expected back sooner than that. Horton has a much longer wait ahead of him.

For the time being, the Cubs will turn to Javier Assad and Colin Rea to make up for lost innings, per The Athletic.