How did Michael Malone end up as UNC's next basketball coach? Just ask his daughter
Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone looks on in the second quarter against the Houston Rockets on Jan. 15, 2025, in Denver.
Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone yells during a game against the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center on April 4, 2025, in San Francisco.
Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone watches in the second quarter of a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Ball Arena on April 1, 2025, in Denver.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Invisible strings connected Michael Malone to North Carolina even before he stood at the podium at the heart of the Dean E. Smith Center on Tuesday, accepting the mantle as UNC's next men's basketball coach.
He spent "quite a bit" of time this past year watching his daughter, Bridget, play volleyball for UNC, just over a mile from the Smith Center, in Carmichael Arena.Â
While in town for one of her matches, Malone, who was fired last April after ten years leading the Denver Nuggets, visited a basketball practice.
He met several former Tar Heels in the pros during his 24 years in the NBA, including coaching Antawn Jamison (who would later become a member of UNC's search committee for the head coach job) and Danny Green for 20+ games each, but it was a connection with Pat Sullivan, an assistant on Hubert Davis' staff and former NBA assistant coach, that made the visit happen.Â
That first practice, Malone said a manager brought him upstairs into the stands, where most visitors observe. Davis demanded Malone be brought down to court level and invited him to speak to the team after. It was a big deal, Malone later learned, and usually an honor reserved for "family."
"For Coach Davis to allow me to be down there and feel a part of it," Malone said at his introductory news conference, "to invite me to speak to the team after practice meant the world to me because I know that wasn't something that happened a guy that is a quote-unquote 'outsider.'"
And while loosely connected to the infamous "Carolina Family," Malone is not a member of it. He's the first UNC coach without prior playing or coaching experience with the Tar Heels since Frank McGuire in 1952.
Now, he's positioned as the next leader of a Blue Blood program yearning for championship contention again and willing to turn to an outsider to do it. A tall task lies ahead of him.
"We've had an unbelievable history starting with Dean Smith that we've always had the opportunity to stay in the family, and it has served this university extremely well, that continuity and something that we take pride in," athletic director-in-waiting Steve Newmark said after Tuesday's news conference. "I believe there was a consensus this time that we needed to look broader than that."
The road to Malone
Before addressing the media and gathered crowd on Tuesday, Malone wasn't the obvious choice.
His name often faded into the background as many speculated about Michigan's Dusty May, Arizona's Tommy Lloyd and the Chicago Bulls' Billy Donovan taking over the Tar Heels after Davis' firing.
Those three played coy with questions about the job opening, until May told Michigan he wasn't interested in the opening, Lloyd signed a contract extension and reports emerged that Donovan wanted to wait until the end of the NBA's regular season before making a decision.
Fourteen days passed after Davis' firing before any word of a successor arrived.
According to Newmark, Malone was on his radar ever since the job opened. It was just a matter of getting Malone to say yes.Â
Bridget gave her father a call 10 days into the search. She told Malone she'd heard his name mentioned and asked about his interest. At the time, Malone said he didn't know.Â
She told him to do it.Â
"We would talk and he would text me and say, 'I know I said this, but.' We'd reengage," Newmark said. "You could tell it was happening in his mind. He would tell me his dad would have been so proud because this is an opportunity to be the first non-Carolina coach since essentially Frank McGuire. That's something special."
Newmark didn't give up. After the Final Four in Indianapolis, he flew to see Malone on Easter. That visit was enough to finally break through.Â
"Full disclosure, every time I said no, I was regretting that," Malone said.
"Hearing [Newmark's] vision and talking about the ins-and-outs of the job," Malone added. "He said this and it resonated within me: He wants a partner with this. Yes, he's looking for a coach that is innovative and has character, understands the tradition of excellence here, but he also wants the coach he can partner with and build something special with."Â
But before Malone could say the final yes, he had to get one more approval: Bridget's. Would there be enough room in Chapel Hill for two Malones?
"She was always known as 'Coach Malone's daughter' or 'Mike Malone's daughter.' No, she's Bridget Malone," Malone said. "When she came here, she had her own place, her own space to be her ... I don't want to come in here and crash your party. You have your thing going on right now. I don't want this to be something that takes away from your spotlight."
Michael Malone shares the conversation he had with his daughter about taking the @UNC_basketball job 🩵 pic.twitter.com/vgOsSAhlbw
— ACC Network (@accnetwork) April 7, 2026
On Tuesday, Bridget sat in the front row, members of the UNC volleyball team and head coach Mike Schall behind her.Â
"She said, 'Dad, I want you to come,'" Malone said. "So I did."
Caroline Wills is a sportswriter for the Winston-Salem Journal and Greensboro News & Record, primarily covering North Carolina A&T and high school sports.Â
