Michael Malone was born in New York, September 15, 1971. He is an American professional basketball coach, currently the head coach of the Denver Nuggets.
Malone previously served as an assistant coach for the New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers, New Orleans Hornets, and Golden State Warriors. He was also head coach of the Sacramento Kings.
Michael Malone – Early life and education
Mike Malone is the son of Brendan Malone, a former NBA coach. His father has worked for almost thirty years as an assistant coach in different NBA franchises and was very respected in League coaching circles.
After finishing Seton Hall Preparatory School, Malone went to Worcester Academy Preparatory School in the 1988-89 school year. He graduated from Loyola University Maryland in 1994 with a degree in history and played on the men’s basketball team from 1989 to 1993.
He played in 107 games and started in 39. Malone scored 370 points, had 279 assists, and 79 steals in almost 19 minutes during his four seasons at Loyola.
Michael Malone – Coaching career
Michael Malone – NCAA
While studying at Loyola, Malone was a high school assistant coach at Friends School of Baltimore. After earning his degree at Loyola, he joined Oakland University as an assistant coach to Greg Kampe. Malone planned to apply for State Police of Michigan before receiving a job offer from Providence College. He was Providence’s assistant coach from 1995 to 1998.
During the 1998-99 season, Malone served as director of men’s basketball administration at the University of Virginia.
Michael Malone – NBA assistant coach
He moved to the NBA in 2001 as an associate coach for the New York Knicks, working with players, coaching, coordinating video analysis, and editing scout reports. The Knicks promoted Malone to full-time assistant coach for the start of the 2003-2004 season.
Mike Malone later worked as an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2005 to 2010. With Cavs, Malone helped coach the Cavaliers to the 2007 NBA Finals and a fantastic record of 66-16 in the 2008–09 season. Michael Malone was an assistant coach and defensive coordinator for the New Orleans Hornets in the 2010–11 Season. The Hornets had their best defense of the season with Malone as an assistant and reached the playoffs.
The Golden State Warriors hired him in the summer of 2011 as assistant coach to Mark Jackson. In the 2012–13 Season, the Warriors finished with a record of 47-35 and won the first playoff berth since 2007. They were defeated by Gregg Popovich’s San Antonio Spurs in the second round. Malone was the NBA’s highest-paid assistant coach for the 2011–12 Season. In 2012, Mike Malone was named best assistant coach in the League by the NBA general managers. Several Warriors players, including Draymond Green and Stephen Curry, have credited coach Malone as an essential part of the team’s success.
Michael Malone – Head coaching career
In the summer of 2013, Malone was hired by Indian majority owner Vivek Ranadivé as the Sacramento Kings’ new head coach.
With the signing, Malone and his father became the second father-son duo in NBA history, after Bill and Eric Musselman, to coach an NBA team.
In December 2014, he was fired by the Kings after starting the 2014-15 season with an 11-13 record. Many players were not happy with a coaching change, and that decision affected the whole season of the young Kings team.
In June 2015, he was named the new head coach of the Denver Nuggets. After a couple of disappointing years, Denver was looking for a person with charisma who could make an order in their locker room.
In the 2018-19 season, Michael Malone led the Nuggets to the Western Conference’s second place with a record of 54-28. In the Nuggets’ first playoff appearance in six seasons, Denver Nuggets defeated the San Antonio Spurs in the first round before being eliminated in the semifinals by the Portland Trail Blazers.
In December 2019, the Denver Nuggets announced that they had agreed to extend the contract with Malone. During the 2020 bubble playoffs, the Denver Nuggets would become the first team in league history to overcome multiple 3-1 deficits in a single postseason, defeating the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers in the first round and in the semifinals, respectively, in seven games.
Denver would be eliminated by the eventual NBA champion, the Los Angeles Lakers, in five games in the Western Conference Finals despite the historical result. LeBron and Davies were less tired, and they have used the fact that Denver Nuggets played many exhausting games before reaching the Conference Finals.
In Season 2020-2021, Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic was voted League MVP. He was the lowest drafted player ever who became MVP, and a lot of credit goes to Coach Malone, who believed in Nikola from his rookie season and saw his potential before others.
Denver’s future at the moment looks bright, and if they add one more high-level player who can help Jokic, they will be a team nobody would like to play against in the playoffs.
Did Michael Malone play in the NBA?
Michael Malone was an average player, and there was no chance for him to play as a pro. Influenced by his father, Malone started to coach very early, even before graduating from college.
Spending his whole life surrounded by NBA coaches, there was no doubt what his future calling would be.
