Why the Tar Heels Made a $50M Gamble on Michael Malone

The biggest reason why Michael Malone is the new head coach at North Carolina is that he knew he wasn’t getting the type of NBA coaching job he’d want this offseason.

The other big reason is that guys named Tommy Lloyd (Arizona) and Dusty May (Michigan) feel they have better jobs than the one in Chapel Hill, N.C.

So the big Malone experiment is a full-go at North Carolina. And, oh yeah, that other huge reason is the six-year, $50-million contract plus incentives he’s getting without even one day of college head-coaching experience.

You can look it up, only legendary Bill Self ($8.8M) has a higher average salary than Malone ($8.3M). Even John Calipari ($8.0M) earns less.

That’s quite a financial commitment for North Carolina’s first outside-the-program hire since 1952.

Malone, 54, was fired by the Denver Nuggets with three games left in the 2024-25 regular season despite leading the franchise to the NBA title just two campaigns earlier.

There was reportedly a lot of tension in the organization, particularly between Malone and then-general manager Calvin Booth, who was fired at the same time.

Malone’s meticulous nature apparently rubbed some players the wrong way. And you could see why it became an issue.

It’s easy to accept hard coaching methods when you’re trying to win a title. After everyone gets a ring, they want to relax a little.

Malone isn’t much for relaxing.

So he wasn’t on an NBA bench this season and perhaps he needed a break. Good for him. He deserved a little time away from coaching basketball.

Malone was surely sizing up what jobs would come open after this season. And he could see there were no winners to be had.

No reason to take a bad job in which you might lose 50 or 60 games. And, well, the Sacramento Kings aren’t a possibility since that franchise infamously fired Malone after just 106 games in 2014.

No matter how you slice it, coaching the Tar Heels is superior to coaching the Kings.

So Malone takes his 11-plus seasons as an NBA head coach and 12 as an NBA assistant back to college. He last was on a college staff at Manhattan in 2001 and the landscape is entirely different.

Just picture all those trees all around Chapel Hill disappearing overnight – that’s how much different.

The coaching part ought to be the easiest segment of the job for Malone. The egos will be largely reduced and a guy with 510 wins on the resume and an NBA title ring on his finger ought to be able to get teenagers and 20-year-olds to listen.

The NIL equation -- the compensation is being upgraded by North Carolina -- shouldn’t be a problem. Malone is used to being around players who are getting paid. Plus, college basketball is often an entire-staff effort so others can handle the things Malone isn’t initially up to speed on.

He surely knows the talent is a drop-off from having guys like three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic or sharpshooter Jamal Murray. But North Carolina is supposed to be in the hunt for all the blue-chippers.

Perhaps former coach Hubert Davis wasn’t landing as many as Duke the past few years. So part of Malone’s success rate may rely on beefing up those scores against the Blue Devils and other national powers.

Malone will come under early season scrutiny – as he should – but I suspect by January that everything will be about game-planning and competing hard and winning games.

The hard thing to analyze is just how long will Malone want to hang out on the campus not far from bustling Franklin Street? Is this something he wants to do the rest of his career?

Obviously, he wants to restore North Carolina back among the top programs in the nation, but will he see an NBA opening three or four years down the road and want to take another spin? There are no academic advisors and other college red-tape annoyances in the NBA.

One thing we do now – this is not a Bill Belichick hire. Malone is not about to retire on the job, no matter how many Brink’s trucks are needed to drop off his money.