The North Carolina Tar Heels are hiring former NBA coach Michael Malone as their new head coach, according to multiple reports.
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Malone was most recently the head coach of the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, with whom he won an NBA championship in 2023. He was fired 79 games into the 2024-25 season despite having posted a 47-32 record at the time of his dismissal, and he has since been working as an analyst for ESPN.
Malone, the son of a coach who led both college and NBA teams, most recently coached at the university level from 1999 to 2001, when he was an assistant for the Manhattan Jaspers. He was also an assistant at Oakland University and Providence College before his tenure at Manhattan.
Malone coached two teams in the NBA — the Sacramento Kings from 2013 to 2014 and the Nuggets from 2015 to 2025. He was fired from both jobs, though he posted a .590 winning percentage in Denver and led the team to the postseason six times. He was credited with helping the growth of center Nikola Jokić, who won three NBA MVP awards during Malone’s tenure.
The Tar Heels fired Hubert Davis in March after he lost in the first round of the men’s NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row. After it made the Final Four in Davis’ first season, North Carolina has failed to advance beyond the Sweet 16 in each of the last four seasons.
From James Worthy to Michael Jordan to Vince Carter, the Tar Heels have produced some of the best college and pro basketball players over the last 50-plus years. After Dean Smith led the program to three national championships from 1971 to 1993, the school hit a lull in the early 2000s.
Alum Roy Williams restored the blueblood to glory beginning with his hire in 2003, winning three more national championships in 2005, 2009 and 2017. Williams retired in 2021, and the school hired Davis, who played at it from 1988 to 1992 and was an assistant under Williams beginning in 2012.
Expectations are likely to be high for Malone. Davis was fired despite having posted a 125-54 record, a .698 winning percentage, across five seasons. Malone will be only the school’s fourth coach since the start of the 2000-01 season, joining Davis, Williams and Matt Doherty.
Malone is the second high-profile coach the North Carolina athletic department has hired from the professional ranks despite having had no college head coaching experience. The Tar Heels’ football program is led by former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, who won six Super Bowls in the NFL.