The next era of North Carolina Tar Heels basketball will be led by a recent NBA champion head coach.
Weeks after firing Hubert Davis following the school’s first round exit in the NCAA Tournament, UNC is turning to former Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
Malone’s move to Chapel Hill comes after rumored candidates Tommy Lloyd (Arizona) and Dusty May (Michigan) made their intentions to stay at their current schools known.
But even if Malone may seem like a pivot based on the reporting, he brings plenty of the cache the North Carolina fanbase and alumni are often looking for in the face of their program.
Michael Malone has the resume and cache worthy of the North Carolina job
Malone has 510 career wins to his credit from his time in the NBA, spanning a season and a half with the Sacramento Kings and then 10 years with the Denver Nuggets. He led Denver to six playoff appearances and the 2023 NBA championship, marking the first title in franchise history.
Malone has made regular appearances as part of ESPN’s NBA coverage since being let go by the Nuggets towards the end of the 2024-25 season, but he’s always made his intentions to return to coaching very clear.
Malone’s next coaching opportunity will come in college basketball instead of the NBA, granted it won’t come with less pressure.
The Tar Heels fell below the program’s high standards during Davis’ tenure, advancing beyond the first week of the NCAA Tournament only twice. North Carolina has also been on a steady decline since falling in the 2022 national championship game. The last national title for UNC came under Roy Williams in the spring of 2017.
Malone will enhance his legacy if he wins big with Tar Heels
Success in the NBA doesn’t always translate to the college game or vice versa, but Malone knows how to manage high-priced players and how to cultivate an environment that can allow high end talent to flourish together. That’s how to win in the NBA, and that’s now a big part of the job in college basketball, especially with a blue blood program like UNC.
If North Carolina continues to invest and Malone can carry his NBA success to the college level, the end result could mean a return to being elite for the Tar Heels and an ability to make history for Malone.
It’s worth noting that Larry Brown still stands as the only coach to ever win both an NBA championship and the NCAA Tournament, doing so in 1988 with Kansas and 2004 with the Detroit Pistons. Leading UNC to the school’s seventh national championship would make Malone the second and solidify his eventual place in the Basketball Hall of Fame.