Michael Malone (born September 15, 1971) is an American professional basketball coach who most recently served as the head coach for the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is currently an analyst for ESPN. He had also been the head coach of the Sacramento Kings in 2013âÂÂ2014. Malone previously served as an assistant coach of the New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers, New Orleans Hornets, and Golden State Warriors.
Born in the Astoria neighborhood of the New York City borough Queens, Malone is the son of Brendan Malone, a former NBA head coach. Malone began his high school playing career at Bishop Hendricken in Warwick, Rhode Island, from 1984âÂÂ1986 while his father was head coach at the University of Rhode Island. He transferred to Seton Hall Preparatory School after his father joined the New York Knicks coaching staff as an assistant. Following graduation from Seton Hall, Malone attended prep school at Worcester Academy during the 1988âÂÂ89 school year. He then attended Loyola University Maryland, playing on the Loyola Greyhounds men's basketball team from 1989 to 1993. He appeared in 107 games and started 39 of them as a point guard. He graduated in 1994 with a degree in history. During his four seasons with the Greyhounds, Malone totaled 370 points, 279 assists, and 79 steals in 18.5 minutes per game. He was inducted to the Loyola Athletics Hall of Fame in March 2026.
While completing his degree at Loyola, Malone was an assistant high school basketball coach at Friends School of Baltimore. After graduating from Loyola, Malone joined Oakland University as an assistant coach for Golden Grizzlies men's basketball under coach Greg Kampe. Malone was about to start training to join the Michigan State Police before getting a job offer from Providence College coach Pete Gillen. Malone was an assistant coach for Providence Friars men's basketball from 1995 to 1998. In the 1998âÂÂ99 season, Malone was director of men's basketball administration at the University of Virginia.
He later moved up to the NBA in 2001 as a coaching associate with the New York Knicks who worked with players, coaching staff, personnel and the video coordinator and edited scouting reports. The Knicks promoted Malone to assistant coach in 2003. Malone later served as an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers from to . With Cleveland, Malone helped coach the Cavaliers to five consecutive playoff appearances, including the 2007 Finals, and a franchise-record, league-best 66âÂÂ16 season in the . Malone was an assistant coach with the New Orleans Hornets in the . Allowing a league-best 8.7 fewer points per game than the previous season, the Hornets had the most improved defense with Malone as assistant and made the 2011 Playoffs.
The Golden State Warriors hired Malone in the summer of 2011 as an assistant coach under Mark Jackson. In the , the Warriors improved from a 23âÂÂ43 record to finish 47âÂÂ35 and earn the team's first playoff berth since 2007. As the sixth seed in the 2013 playoffs, the Warriors upset the third-seed Denver Nuggets in the first round and lost to the eventual Western Conference champion San Antonio Spurs in six games the next round. Malone was reportedly the highest-paid NBA assistant coach in the . In 2012, Malone was named the best assistant coach by the NBA general managers. After his departure, several Warriors, including Draymond Green and Stephen Curry, credited Malone as being a huge part of the team's success.
On June 3, 2013, Malone was hired by majority owner Vivek Ranadivé as the new head coach of the Sacramento Kings. With the hiring, Malone and his father became the second father-son duo in NBA history, after Bill Musselman and Eric Musselman, to head coach an NBA team. On December 15, 2014, he was fired by the Kings after starting the 2014âÂÂ15 season with an 11âÂÂ13 winâÂÂloss record.
On June 15, 2015, Malone was named the new head coach of the Denver Nuggets. In the , he led the Nuggets to the second seed in the Western Conference, behind the Golden State Warriors, with a 54âÂÂ28 record. In the Nuggets first playoff berth in six seasons, Denver defeated the San Antonio Spurs in the first round in seven games, before being eliminated in the semifinals by the Portland Trail Blazers, also in seven games. On December 24, 2019, the Nuggets announced that they had agreed to a contract extension with Malone. During the 2020 playoffs in the NBA Bubble, the Nuggets would become the first team in league history to overcome multiple 3âÂÂ1 deficits in a single postseason, defeating the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers in the first round and semifinals, respectively. Despite the historic feat, Denver would be eliminated in the Western Conference finals by the eventual NBA champion, the Los Angeles Lakers, in five games.
On March 23, 2022, Malone and the Nuggets reached an agreement on a multi-year contract extension. In the , outside of a few instances of being tied with the Memphis Grizzlies, the Nuggets held sole position of the top seed in the Western Conference from December 20 until the end of the regular season, earning Malone a second All-Star Game coaching gig in five years in the process. The Nuggets defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games in the first round before needing six games to outlast Devin Booker, newly acquired Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns in the conference semifinals to advance to their second Conference Finals in four seasons. As in 2020, they were again be matched up with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the Los Angeles Lakers. Denver went on to sweep the Lakers and advance to their first NBA Finals in franchise history. It was also the first time a Nuggets team had ever swept an opponent in postseason history.
In the 2023 Finals, Denver faced the Miami Heat, the first eighth seed to reach the Finals since the 1998âÂÂ99 New York Knicks. Holding a 3âÂÂ1 series advantage heading into Game 5, the Nuggets, who entered the game with a series shooting average of 37.6% from three-point range, shot a historically poor 6.7% from distance in the first half. Additionally, Denver committed 10 turnovers in the first half and missed 10 of their first 19 free throws. Despite their shooting struggles, the Nuggets came back from an early 10-point deficit to take an 83âÂÂ76 lead with 4:43 left in the fourth quarter and would ultimately defeat Miami 94âÂÂ89 at home to clinch the first championship title in their 47-year history. Nikola Jokiàwas named the Finals MVP. On November 24, 2024, with a 127âÂÂ102 win over the Los Angeles Lakers, Malone recorded his 433rd win with the Nuggets, surpassing Doug Moe for the most wins in franchise history. On April 8, 2025, after four consecutive losses, the Nuggets fired Malone and announced that they would not extend general manager Calvin Booth's contract. Malone's dismissal, 79 games into the season, tied the latest in-season change by any team in NBA history, and became the latest for a playoff team.
In January 2020, Malone joined the Serbian national team coaching staff as a consultant for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
After being fired by the Nuggets, Malone was named as a studio analyst for ABC/ESPN. He later joined as the studio analyst for NBA Countdown, replacing Bob Myers.
Malone and his wife have two children.
|- | style="text-align:left;"|Sacramento | style="text-align:left;"| | 82||28||54|||| style="text-align:center;"|4th in Pacific||âÂÂ||âÂÂ||âÂÂ||â | style="text-align:center;"|Missed playoffs |- | style="text-align:left;"|Sacramento | style="text-align:left;"| | 24||11||13|||| style="text-align:center;"|(fired)||âÂÂ||âÂÂ||âÂÂ||â | style="text-align:center;"|â |- | style="text-align:left;"|Denver | style="text-align:left;"| | 82||33||49|||| style="text-align:center;"|4th in Northwest||âÂÂ||âÂÂ||âÂÂ||â | style="text-align:center;"|Missed playoffs |- | style="text-align:left;"|Denver | style="text-align:left;"| | 82||40||42|||| style="text-align:center;"|4th in Northwest||âÂÂ||âÂÂ||âÂÂ||â | style="text-align:center;"|Missed playoffs |- | style="text-align:left;"|Denver | style="text-align:left;"| | 82||46||36|||| style="text-align:center;"|5th in Northwest||âÂÂ||âÂÂ||âÂÂ||â | style="text-align:center;"|Missed playoffs |- | style="text-align:left;"|Denver | style="text-align:left;"| | 82||54||28|||| style="text-align:center;"|1st in Northwest||14||7||7|| | style="text-align:center;"|Lost in conference semifinals |- | style="text-align:left;"|Denver | style="text-align:left;"| | 73||46||27|||| style="text-align:center;"|1st in Northwest||19||9||10|| | style="text-align:center;"|Lost in conference finals |- | style="text-align:left;"|Denver | style="text-align:left;"| | 72||47||25|||| style="text-align:center;"|2nd in Northwest||10||4||6|| | style="text-align:center;"|Lost in conference semifinals |- | style="text-align:left;"|Denver | style="text-align:left;"| | 82||48||34|||| style="text-align:center;"|2nd in Northwest||5||1||4|| | style="text-align:center;"|Lost in first round |- style="background:#fde910;" | style="text-align:left;"|Denver | style="text-align:left;"| | 82||53||29|||| style="text-align:center;"|1st in Northwest||20||16||4|| | style="text-align:center;"|Won NBA championship |- | style="text-align:left;"|Denver | style="text-align:left;"| | 82||57||25|||| style="text-align:center;"|2nd in Northwest||12||7||5|| | style="text-align:center;"|Lost in conference semifinals |- | style="text-align:left;"|Denver | style="text-align:left;"| | 79||47||32|||| style="text-align:center;"|(fired)||âÂÂ||âÂÂ||âÂÂ||â | style="text-align:center;"|â |- class="sortbottom" | style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career||904||510||394|||| ||80||44||36||||