North Carolina to Hire NBA Title-Winning Coach Michael Malone

Former Nuggets championship-winning coach Michael Malone is set to be the next Tar Heels head men's basketball coach.

Malone coached the Nuggets from 2015 to 2025, winning a championship in 2022-23. | David Gonzales-Imagn Images

In a college basketball stunner, the North Carolina men's basketball team intends to hire NBA championship-winning coach Michael Malone as its next head coach, Pete Thamel of ESPN reports.

Malone has won 510 games as an NBA coach, though his most successful run came with the Nuggets, whom he coached from 2015-25 and led to the NBA title during the 2022–23 season.

Malone last coached in the collegiate ranks in 2001, where he served as an assistant coach for the Manhattan University men's basketball team.

Malone was fired during the 2024-25 season and joined ESPN as an analyst, where he’s worked since. He will now take over a Tar Heels program that bowed out of the first round of the NCAA tournament in consecutive years, ultimately leading to the firing of former player and coach Hubert Davis on March 24.

Hubert Davis's firing set off firestorm of North Carolina rumors

Davis’s firing immediately skyrocketed the Tar Heels head coaching vacancy to the top of the list as the most desirable job in college basketball, given the school’s commitment of resources to the men’s college basketball program, as well as its rich history of success in the sport. The rumor mill churned out plenty of candidates, from rising stars at the mid-major level, such as Saint Louis’s Josh Schertz, to successful power conference coaches such as Arizona’s Tommy Llloyd, who tap danced around questions concerning the Tar Heels job in the lead-up to the Elite Eight and Final Four. Despite Lloyd's nonanswers to these questions, he agreed to a contract extension with Arizona, taking his name off the list of Tar Heels candidates.

Michigan’s Dusty May was also believed to be a candidate, but he on Sunday announced that he would be remaining with the Wolverines, ending any speculation he was angling for the North Carolina job. Bulls coach Billy Donovan, who led the Florida Gators to back-to-back national championships in ‘06 and ‘07, was also believed to be a candidate to return to the college game and take the Tar Heels post.

Amazingly, Malone’s name seemingly didn’t pop up in any rumors publicly, and while he has extensive coaching experience at both levels, he’s never been a head coach in college basketball. The 54-year-old has been an assistant for three different collegiate programs, with his first stint coming in 1993–94 with the Oakland men’s basketball team. He then served as an assistant at Providence from 1995-98 before joining the Manhattan Jaspers’ coaching staff from 1999-01. Malone served as an assistant coach in the NBA from 2001-13 and has 13 years of experience as a head coach at the pro level.

This was the first time North Carolina had had to conduct an outside search for a new head men’s basketball coach since it hired the legendary Roy Williams in 2003-04. After decades of hiring internally through the Dean Smith coaching tree, there was a sense that the Tar Heels needed to move outside their comfort zone with the next hire, particularly given how Davis flamed out in Chapel Hill. In hiring Malone, North Carolina certainly seems to have done just that. Malone has ties to North Carolina, where his daughter is currently a member of the volleyball team.

Malone’s expected hiring comes at an important time in the college basketball calendar, as the transfer portal officially opens on Tuesday. The portal has become an important tool for roster-building and a quick way for coaches to land experienced players to the program.

Malone won’t be part of the NBA coaching cycle this year

Malone’s dismissal from Denver was a shocking development that appeared to have more to do with his poor relationships around the building than his coaching prowess. Past coaches in similar situations rarely have to wait long before being given another opportunity in the sideline.

As such Malone figured to be in the running for any open NBA head coaching jobs this offseason with the dust fully settled around his bizarre Nuggets exit. And the rumor mill suggests there might be more than a few open positions. The Pelicans and Trail Blazers are finishing up the year with interim head coaches and no decided future of the head coaching position. Underperforming teams like the Magic, Bucks or Bulls could very well decide they need a new leader, too. As a veteran coach with championship experience Malone would have been, at the very least, a constant name in the interview circuit.

That, of course, is no longer on the table. Malone will no longer be in consideration for any of the coaching jobs that might open up this summer. That will narrow down the list for any team hoping to land an experienced coach with a championship résumé.

More to come on this developing story.

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