The Family Tie That May Have Influenced Michael Malone to Take North Carolina Job

After hiring future Hall of Famer Bill Belichick to lead their football team back in 2024, the North Carolina Tar Heels are converting yet another former professional coach to the NCAA with their impending addition of ex-NBA guru Michael Malone, who is expected to fill the men's basketball head coach position vacated by the dismissal of Hubert Davis.

Malone, 54, was most recently the coach of the Nuggets, with whom he won an NBA title in 2022–23. Despite that success, the team shockingly fired him just before the playoffs last April. He has since been working as an ESPN analyst.

Although Malone does have some college coaching experience, he was never a head coach at that level, which made his planned hiring with the Tar Heels somewhat of a shock. The decision also takes him out of the running for the impending NBA coaching cycle, where he figured to have some interest.

That said, it all seems much less surprising when you consider Malone's familial ties to Chapel Hill.

As far back as October 2025, Malone was seen wearing a Tar Heels sweatshirt during an appearance on Inside the NBA. And as much as we'd love to say that was some sort of elaborately planned Easter Egg on the coach's part, it was actually a show of support for his daughter, Bridget, who plays volleyball for UNC.

Certainly, the opportunity to coach at the same school as his daughter could have proved attractive to Malone, who has reportedly "attended some of her games in Chapel Hill and is familiar with the campus and the traditions," per the Charlotte Observer's Scott Fowler. Maybe it even factored into his decision to take the job.

Malone's daughter, Bridget, is also a standout volleyball player at UNC. He's attended some of her games in Chapel Hill and is familiar with the campus and the traditions. https://t.co/LxQUtx2O2k
— Scott Fowler (@scott_fowler) April 6, 2026

Outside of his 13 years of head coaching experience at the professional level, Malone served as an assistant for three different collegiate programs between 1994 and 2001. His first stint was with the Oakland men's basketball team from 1993–95, followed by the Providence men's basketball team from ’95 to 98. From 1999 to 2001, he was an assistant with the Manhattan Jaspers before getting a gig as a Knicks coaching associate in ‘01. He was promoted to assistant coach in ’03.

Following that, Malone held assistant gigs with the Cavaliers, the then-New Orleans Hornets, and the Warriors, before two years as head coach of the Kings and his stint with the Nuggets beginning in 2015.

His expected hiring at UNC comes after the Tar Heels reportedly tried and (perhaps surprisingly) failed to secure interest from other attractive collegiate talent, like Arizona's Tommy Lloyd and Michigan's Dusty May. Still, it establishes a clear connection to the pros that will likely prove valuable to recruits, as was/is the case with Belichick and the football program. Beyond that, Malone's primary charge will be restoring Chapel Hill's basketball program to championship caliber following the group’s first-round tournament exits both this year and last.

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