North Carolina men's basketball to hire Michael Malone as next head coach, per reports

College basketballNorth Carolina men's basketball to hire Michael Malone as next head coach, per reportsMalone previously was head coach of the NBA's Denver Nuggets for 10 seasons, leading the franchise to a title in 2022-23. Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Former head coach Michael Malone of the Denver Nuggets. Eakin Howard / Getty Images fileShareAdd NBC News to GoogleApril 6, 2026, 5:56 PM EDTBy Rohan NadkarniThe North Carolina Tar Heels are hiring former NBA coach Michael Malone as their new head coach, according to multiple reports.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Malone was most recently the head coach of the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, with whom he won an NBA championship in 2023. He was fired 79 games into the 2024-25 season despite posting a 47-32 record at the time of his dismissal, and has since been working as an analyst for ESPN. The son of a coach who led both college and NBA teams, Malone most recently coached at the university level from 1999 to 2001, when he was an assistant for the Manhattan Jaspers. He was also an assistant at Oakland University and Providence College before his tenure at Manhattan.More from SportsAngel Reese is traded from Chicago Sky to Atlanta DreamUCLA’s unconventional strategy to win a national title — all seniors, all the timeYou’re the best player in the NCAA Tournament. It doesn’t mean you’ll have an NBA future.Malone coached two teams in the NBA — the Sacramento Kings from 2013 to 2014, and the Nuggets from 2015 to 2025. Malone was fired from both jobs, though he posted a .590 winning percentage in Denver, and also led the team to the postseason six times. He was credited with helping the growth of center Nikola Jokić, who won three NBA MVP awards during Malone’s tenure. The Tar Heels fired Hubert Davis in March after he lost in the first round of the men’s NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row. After making the Final Four in...