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Malone led the Nuggets to their first NBA championship in 2023 and is the franchise’s career leader in wins.
Former Denver Nuggets head coach Mike Malone (X)
Michael Malone, who was fired by the Denver Nuggets with three games remaining in the regular season, will join ESPN for its coverage of the Western Conference finals.
The series beginning Tuesday night matches the Minnesota Timberwolves against the Oklahoma City Thunder, who eliminated Malone’s former team in seven games in the second round.
Malone led the Nuggets to their first NBA championship in 2023 and is the franchise’s career leader in wins. But they made the surprising decision to part ways with him and general manager Calvin Booth in the final week of the regular season.
David Adelman finished the season as Denver’s coach.
As time has gone on, more and more information has been released, more specifically on Malone, that has given insight as to why the move was made.
Most recently, on “The Ringer NBA Show”, The Athletic’s Sam Amick discussed more details on the situation.
“…one of the things that ended up tripping Malone up at the end was that he was giving the star treatment to Joker, to Jamal, and Russ. And that locker room was like ‘Wait a minute. Two of these things are not like the other.’ And that caused issues.”
While at the time of the firing, everyone was confused, especially given the timing, as more information was released, the firing of Michael Malone made more and more sense.
Malone will now work on the “NBA Countdown” pregame and halftime studio show that will be on site at all the games in the series, joining Malika Andrews, Stephen A. Smith, Bob Myers, Kendrick Perkins, and Shams Charania.
(with agency inputs)
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