North Carolina to hire Michael Malone as next basketball coach: Led Nuggets to NBA title in 2022-23

The Tar Heels have landed an unexpected hire as their next coach

UNC is expected to hire former Denver Nuggets coach and 2023 NBA champion Michael Malone as its next leader of the basketball program, ESPN reports. This comes on the heels of Arizona target Tommy Lloyd signing a long-term extension with the Wildcats during the Final Four and Michigan coach Dusty May removing himself from consideration.

Malone last coached the Nuggets during the 2024-25 season, his 10th as Denver's leader. UNC promised to go "outside the family" with this hire and proved a point with Malone, who wasn't initially listed as a candidate on any of the Tar Heels' reported lists of potential targets.

The Nuggets fired Malone and general manager Calvin Booth last April after failing to meet expectations despite another stellar campaign from multi-time MVP Nikola Jokic'. Malone, 54, is a Queens, New York native who spent the first several years of his coaching career in the college ranks as an assistant at Oakland, Providence and Manhattan before joining the NBA ranks in 2001 with the New York Knicks.

This was the first time the Tar Heels conducted an outside search for a head coach since landing Roy Williams from Kansas prior to the 2003-04 season. 

Malone worked as an NBA assistant under various staffs for four different franchises for the next 12 seasons before earning his first head-coaching job with the Sacramento Kings in 2013. He took over the Nuggets in 2015 and lasted 10 years prior to his firing in 2025. He was a two-time NBA All-Star Game coach and is the son of Brendan Malone, a former NBA coach.

Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan was also being considered for the Tar Heels' vacancy. UNC moved on from Hubert Davis following the Tar Heels' NCAA Tournament loss last month.

UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham sounded confident after parting ways with Davis that the Tar Heels would hire one of the basketball world's top coaches.

"We know we've got the most highly sought after job in the country," Cunningham said last month. "I mean, the history, the tradition, and the success of this program is second-to-none. We will be inundated with requests for consideration."

There aren't many previous connections between Malone and the Tar Heels, but Malone's daughter, Bridget, plays volleyball for North Carolina.

Former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, once UNC's former bitter rival, was impressed with the hire as colleges shift to a pro model.

"They had an NFL champion hired as the coach and Duke beat Carolina in football this year," Krzyzewski said. "There is time for adjustment. It takes longer if you ever get adjusted coming from the pros to college. Mike is a terrific coach and terrific guy. There's a learning curve. If that is true, whatever the reasoning is … maybe they're changing — they have now two pro coaches coaching in college. The infrastructure of their athletic department, is it becoming more a pro organization? I think everybody should be doing that. Maybe that's a sign they're moving in that direction organizationally."

CBS Sports will update this story.