Michael Malone

Michael Malone is an American professional basketball coach who is the head coach for the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He had also been the head coach of the Sacramento Kings in 2013–2014. Malone previously served as an assistant coach of the New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers, New Orleans Hornets, and Golden State Warriors.

On June 15, 2015, he was named the new head coach of the Denver Nuggets. In the 2018–19 season, Malone led the Nuggets to the second seed in the Western Conference, behind the Golden State Warriors, with a 54–28 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 Semi-finals 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 3–1 deficits in a single postseason, defeating the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers in the First Round and Semi-finals respectively, in seven games after trailing 3–1 each series. 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 2022-23 season, outside of a few instances of being tied with the Memphis Grizzlies, the Nuggets would hold 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. Despite being the top seed in the West, the seemingly overlooked Denver 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 Semi-Finals to advance to their second Conference Finals in four seasons, where, like 2020, they’d again be matched up with LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers. Denver would go 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 NBA Finals, Denver would face off against the Miami Heat, the first eighth seed to reach the Finals since the 1998-99 New York Knicks. Holding a 3–1 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 three-point range 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 showed their resiliency, as they stormed back from an early 10-point deficit to take an 83–76 lead with 4:43 left in the fourth quarter and would ultimately defeat Miami 94–89 at home to clinch the first championship title in franchise history after a 47-year drought, with Nikola Jokic unanimously being named NBA Finals MVP.