The University of North Carolina reportedly found its replacement for Hubert Davis, and it’s a surprising name. Former Denver Nuggets head coach and NBA championship winner Michael Malone will reportedly be hired to run the program following Davis’ firing, per ESPN.
Malone, 54, has experience as a college assistant, but has never been a head coach at a university.
His hiring mirrors that of UNC football head coach Bill Belichick, who the university hired despite the legendary NFL coach never holding a head-coaching job at the college level.
The majority of Malone’s head-coaching experience came in the NBA, where after many years as an assistant, he finally was elevated into the main role with the Sacramento Kings.
Malone spent one-and-a-half seasons with the team, going 39-67 before he was fired.
He landed on his feet quickly, joining the Nuggets. After two straight years of sub-.500 basketball, Malone turned things around in Denver and helped make the Nuggets perennial contenders in the West.
After a 46-36 performance during the 2017-18 NBA season that left the team just out of the playoffs, Malone led Denver to six straight playoff appearances. The team lost in the first round just once in those six trips, often making deep runs in the postseason.
Malone’s time with the Nuggets reached its apex during the 2022-23 NBA season, when he led the franchise to its first title. Powered by Nikola Jokić, the Nuggets defeated the Miami Heat in five games to win it all.
But that didn’t result in much job security for Malone. The Nuggets made the playoffs again the following season, though lost in the semifinals to the Minnesota Timberwolves. With the team heading for another postseason appearance during the 2024-25 NBA season, however, the Nuggets shocked the NBA world by firing Malone and general manager Calvin Booth with just three games left in the regular season.
Assistant David Adelman took over and led the Nuggets back to the semifinals, where they fell to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Adelman has the Nuggets in strong playoff position again this season.
Despite his excellent run with the Nuggets, Malone failed to get an NBA head-coaching job in the offseason. He instead opted to take the broadcasting route, appearing on ESPN during the 2024-25 NBA playoffs and then signing on to join the network for “NBA Countdown” after he wasn’t hired by a team during the offseason.
At UNC, Malone will technically have a new, but also familiar, experience. Following his playing career at Loyola, Malone first was a high-school basketball assistant before eventually moving to the college level to work as an assistant at Oakland, Providence and Manhattan before finally moving to the NBA to be an assistant with the New York Knicks. UNC will be his first opportunity to be a head coach of a college program.
And expectations will be high. Following a promising first season from Davis, UNC has experienced disappointment and premature exits over the past four seasons. The most recent one, a first-round loss to No. 11 seed VCU, resulted in Davis’ firing.
By all accounts, UNC ran a comprehensive search to bring in a new coach to elevate the program back to its championship standards. Tommy Lloyd opted to remain at Arizona after receiving a lucrative offer from UNC, according to Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wolken. Coaches like Alabama’s Nate Oats and Florida’s Todd Golden were also linked to the job but ultimately remained in place.
The school also reportedly reached out to Iowa’s Ben McCollum, per CBSSports.com, but McCollum declined to interview for the position.
Bulls head coach Billy Donovan was also believed to be a target, but reportedly wasn’t going to entertain discussions about the job until the end of Chicago’s season on April 12.
UNC made the decision to hire Malone on Monday with the opening of college basketball’s transfer portal looming. The portal opens Tuesday, and not having a coach in place would have put North Carolina at a disadvantage in building next season’s roster.
Things reportedly moved quickly between UNC and Malone over the past 18 hours, leading to his surprising hire Monday.
While the speed may have been due to Malone’s eagerness to take on a new head-coaching role after sitting out this NBA season, it probably helped that his daughter currently plays for UNC’s volleyball team.
With UNC, Malone will be tasked with turning around a program that was previously a perennial contender to win a national championship. Under long-time coach Roy Williams, the program managed that goal three times during his 18-year run at UNC.
Following Williams’ retirement, Davis — a long-time assistant under Williams — was hired to take over for his mentor. After taking the team all the way to the NCAA tournament final in his first season, Davis looked like a strong choice. But repeated failures, particularly in the 2022-23 season when UNC opened the year ranked No. 1 in the country and then failed to make the field of 64, have resulted in lowered expectations and a lowered ceiling for UNC.
Given the program’s previous heights, UNC needed to bring in a coach capable of getting the team back to championship-contender status. Malone managed to do that in the NBA. Now, he’ll see if his style can carry over to the college game.
