Michael Malone now has the opportunity to do what only one other coach—who also happens to be a former Denver Nuggets head coach—has accomplished in basketball history.
Being named head coach of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels last week means Malone will have a shot at adding an NCAA title to the NBA crown he won with the Nuggets in 2023.
Only North Carolina alum Larry Brown, who coached Denver from 1974 into 1979, has won both (with the University of Kansas in 1988 and the Detroit Pistons in 2004).
“I’ve asked our staff to start moving those banners so that we can hang another,” outgoing Athletics Director Bubba Cunningham said to Malone during his introductory news conference. As Cunningham spoke, he gestured to the six national championship banners that hang in the Smith Center, named for late Hall of Fame coach Dean Smith.
“I don’t want to put any pressure on you, but they’re starting to move them tomorrow.”
Under Smith, Frank McGuire before him and Roy Williams after, the Tar Heels not only won those six titles but also were runners-up six other times. They’ve made a record 21 Final Four appearances. (Only UCLA (10) and Kentucky (8) have won more titles.)
“It wasn’t an easy decision,” Malone told an audience that included Williams, a three-time champion, and UNC head football coach Bill Belichick, winner of six Super Bowls as head coach of the New England Patriots.
“But what I kept thinking about was, I had a chance to be a part of something special—the history and tradition.”
Malone, however, is not taking over the program that any of those coaching giants knew, which is precisely why he might succeed.
Between NIL money by the boatload, a transfer portal that puts professional free agency to shame, and one-and-done phenoms who can’t wait to play in the NBA, today’s college game is closer to pro than anything McGuire, Smith or Williams ever imagined.
“I think a lot of NBA coaches understand what it means to coach somebody that’s making money,” said Malone’s successor in Denver, David Adelman.
“It’s more of a professional environment now. I think you’re going to see more pro coaches of coach Malone’s caliber looking at jobs like that.”
That’s not Malone’s only asset in his new job., though
Fifteen percent of the players in this year’s just-completed March Madness—264— were international recruits. In all, about 500 foreign-born players occupied roster spots in Division One in the ’25-’26 season.
It won’t be lost on any international recruit that Malone helped the Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic—a second-round draft choice from Serbia—become one of the greatest basketball players of all time.
And it won’t hurt a bit that Malone has the big Serb’s endorsement.
“I’m happy for him,” Jokic said upon hearing the news. “I think he’s going to do a really good job because he can actually have time to coach the guys and teach them how to play the game the right way.”
Malone was named head coach of the Nuggets on June 15, 2015 and fired on April 28, 2025. In between, his Denver teams won 471 games, including three seasons of more than 50 wins, made the playoffs six times, and won the NBA championship in 2023.
He came to the Mile High City with the reputation as a defense-minded coach but established himself as an innovative offensive mind by developing Jokic and building a dynamic attack around him.
“Michael has proven he knows how to build strong, successful teams that can consistently compete in the postseason and win championships,” said Cunningham, “and he knows how to make everyone on the floor better.
“He understands how to build rosters and coach NBA players, which is exactly what our Tar Heels want to be.”
Malone has displayed a coaching intensity that, in the eyes of many college observers, rivals Connecticut’s mercurial Bob Hurley. He’s been described as demanding, loud, fiery, sometimes stubborn, and “old-school.”
How that plays at North Carolina is one of the big questions about his selection.
Malone’s hiring has been called “out-of-the-box,” a “surprise,” and a move of necessity so that UNC had a head coach in place before the opening of the transfer portal. It’s also been pointed out that he last coached at the college level—as an assistant at Manhattan—more than 25 years ago. And that college basketball games are two halves instead of four quarters.
Some have suggested he was chosen only after the likes of Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd, Michigan’s Dusty May and Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan, who won two national championships in 19 years at Florida.
And it’s been noted that hiring him spared North Carolina the expense of covering some coveted current college coach’s contractual buyout, which these days runs into the many millions.
But none of that is the spin coming from Chapel Hill. UNC wanted him enough to sign Malone to a six-year, $50-million contract that, while not as lucrative as his last couple of Nuggets deals, makes him one of the highest-paid coaches in the college game.
“Michael was the first coach we engaged with as part of the search process because of his reputation as a selfless teacher and innovator who brings an incredible ability to connect with players and get the absolute best out of those he mentors,” said Executive Associate Athletic Director Steve Newmark, who will succeed Cunningham as Carolina’s Director of Athletics on July 1.
“He is a brilliant coach who will deliver a modern and disciplined approach to leading our men’s basketball program, which is critical in the current landscape of college athletics.”
________________
Denny Dressman writes a weekly sports column for The Villager. You can write to Denny at dennydressman@comcast.net.