UNC is hiring former NBA champion Michael Malone as its next coach, making the move Monday ahead of college basketball’s opening of the transfer portal later this week. Malone, who didn’t coach this season after he was fired by the Denver Nuggets last April, has been close to the Tar Heels’ program all season.
Malone, whose daughter is a volleyball player at UNC, watched the Tar Heels’ first five practices last fall before he was asked by then-coach Hubert Davis to speak to the team, as a 2023 NBA champion. Players had a ton of respect for Malone, based on what he did with the Nuggets and league MVP Nikola Jović.
“When we opened up training camp (with the Nuggets), my biggest goal as a coach was finding a way every single day to get better,” Malone said on the Carolina Insider podcast in October. “If it’s in the weight room, if it’s player development or film. … whatever it may be, you have to find a way individually and collectively, find a way to get better. If you find a way to do that throughout the course of a season, you’re going to put yourself in a very good position at the end of the year.
“It’s so easy for everybody (to say), ‘We can win the ACC’ but are you doing what you’re supposed to do every day? Did you cut corners in practice or in the weight room? Now you’re just talking empty words. We don’t want to be an empty team and I know Hubert Davis and this team is not about empty words.”
Malone spoke highly of Davis and his coaching staff’s progress with the team before the 2025-26 season ultimately ended early in the NCAA Tournament against VCU without top scorer Caleb Wilson.
“As a head coach, sometimes you can’t see the forest through the trees and I said coach, it’s important for you to know, these guys are getting better,” Malone said after watching preseason practice. “I’ve watched five or six practices now and from the first practice today, I see marked improvements. When I watched them the most important thing for me as a coach that jumped out to me is they’re working hard, improving and coming together as a team, but it’s not going to happen overnight with so many (new) players.”
UNC fired Davis after five seasons on March 19. Losing a 19-point lead in March Madness was too much to stomach at a program that considers itself one of the best in college basketball.
“The best coaches are teachers, and you teach the why,” Malone added. “One thing I learned along the way in the NBA is players don’t really care how much you know, until they know how much you care. From Hubert all the way down, those coaches care about those guys not just as players, but they’re investing themselves into them as people. When players feel that kind of love and care, they’re willing to go that extra mile and do so much more.”
At the end of the podcast, Malone said he was looking forward to getting back to coaching and leaving his basketball analyst role during the 2026-27 season.
“I’m a coach, I’m a teacher … I’d love to get back to coaching again as long as it’s the right opportunity with the right people,” Malone said.
