At the end of March, North Carolina made a major change to their men’s basketball team by firing head coach Hubert Davis, who spent five seasons with the team.
Today, the school announced that it is hiring former NBA head coach Mike Malone to take over the program. Here’s a look at Malone’s coaching history and whether he’s coached college basketball before.
Has Mike Malone Ever Coached College Basketball?
Before joining the Tar Heels, Malone had an illustrious 10-year career as the head coach of the Denver Nuggets. During that time, he became the winningest coach in Nuggets history and led the team to the 2023 NBA championship, prevailing thanks to Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray.
Despite the success, the Nuggets fired him with three games left in the 2024-2025 NBA regular season. Now, he’s on his way to coach in North Carolina.
However, collegiate coaching is nothing new to Malone, who spent several seasons with a handful of different teams.
His coaching career started at Oakland University (1994-1995) under head coach Greg Kampe. After only one season as an assistant coach, Malone almost gave up on coaching and was close to joining the police academy to become a Michigan state trooper, but he changed his mind.
After changing his mind, he joined Providence under head coach Peter Gillen (1995-1998). The role was an unpaid assistantship, and he mostly oversaw players’ academic progress rather than anything basketball-related.
Following that, Malone joined fellow former Providence coach Bobby Gonzalez at Manhattan College (1999-2001). Malone returned to the sidelines as a lead assistant for head coach Gonzalez, and he was credited for his recruiting ability. He heavily recruited and even received a verbal commitment from Delonte West before the deal fell through because St. Joseph’s basketball promised playing time in a more publicized conference.
Following that, Malone served as an assistant coach/scout for the New York Knicks for two years before joining the Cleveland Cavaliers as an assistant coach. He was an assistant coach for a few more years with the New Orleans Hornets and the Golden State Warriors before landing his first head coaching job with the Sacramento Kings.
In his first season with the Kings, Malone and company finished with a record of 28-54. The following season, he coached the team to an 11-13 record and was fired after only 24 games. The following season, he joined the Nuggets and went on a tear over the course of 10 seasons.
So yes, Malone does possess collegiate coaching experience, but it was in roles where he served mainly as an assistant. Malone makes up for that with extensive head coaching experience in the NBA.
There might be questions about how he’ll handle recruiting and NIL, but Malone is a great hire for the Tar Heels and has the coaching ability to make North Carolina a threat once again.
