Brooke Pryor
Multiple Authors
CHAPEL HILL — Six months ago, Michael Malone attended North Carolina basketball practices at the Dean Smith Center as a self-proclaimed outsider. On Tuesday, though, the former, longtime NBA coach stood behind a lectern on that same hardwood and was embraced as a member of the Carolina family.
“Really thankful for this opportunity,” Malone said at the news conference introducing him as UNC’s next head men’s basketball coach. “I do not take it lightly. And people keep asking me, ‘Coach, why would you leave a chance of coaching in the NBA? You’re an NBA coach.’ We won a championship in Denver in 2023.
“It wasn’t an easy decision, but what I kept thinking about was, I had a chance to be a part of something special, the history and tradition. Be a part of something much bigger than myself. This was the only college job I ever considered. Any other job, I wouldn’t even answer the phone.”
Malone didn’t just answer the phone, he also hosted UNC brass for a five-hour marathon meeting at his home on Sunday evening that ultimately ended the Tar Heels’ persistent courtship with a six-year, $50 million contract to make him among the highest-paid coaches in the sport.
Though Malone has never been a college basketball head coach and was last in the ranks as an assistant with Manhattan in 2001, the 20-year NBA veteran has six NBA playoff appearances and 510 career NBA wins in addition to the 2023 title.
“I think his track record, he warrants that type of compensation,” said Executive Associate Athletic Director Steve Newmark. “And we also believe this institution and where it sits in the basketball hierarchy should be paying for what we believe is elite.”
Malone enters the job with sky-high expectations. Outgoing athletic director Bubba Cunningham gestured to UNC’s six national championship banners hanging in the Smith Center as he spoke to Malone and to the crowd of UNC fans and luminaries.
“Larry Brown is the only coach that has won a national championship and won an NBA championship,” Cunningham said with a smirk. “You have won an NBA championship already, and I’ve asked our staff to start moving those banners so that we can hang another. I don’t want to put any pressure on you, but they’re starting to move them tomorrow.”
Malone replaces Hubert Davis, who was fired last month after a 125-54 record in a five-year tenure that was capped with a historic collapse in the first round of this year’s NCAA tournament. Malone acknowledged the occasion was “bittersweet” because he got to know Davis this fall through UNC assistant coach Pat Sullivan.
“Hubert Davis let me in,” Malone said. “He allowed me to come in and watch, be a part of this family, which does not happen very often. … I was rooting for them all year long.”
Throughout his opening remarks, Malone acknowledged the responsibility that comes with leading the UNC basketball program as the first head coach since Frank McGuire in 1951 to be hired without a prior connection to the university. He also underscored the importance of pushing the program forward into its next era — something that began as soon as he landed in Chapel Hill just before noon.
He met with his staff along with former and current players, including the seven who have entered the portal. He also stressed the importance of bringing in assistants familiar with the college landscape to help him navigate the current structure of the sport.
“I’m going to surround myself with the best people possible to help me get a better grasp [on college basketball] so we can attack it,” he said. “And as I hire my staff, I want to hire guys that have great contacts, not only in the country, but around the world. So we can continue to bring the best players here and help them develop, so we can field the best team.”
As Malone spoke, former head coach Roy Williams nodded along from a seat next to his wife Wanda in the front row of the audience. Two sections to Williams’ right was nearly all of the members of the 2025-26 basketball team, including projected lottery pick Caleb Williams and center Henri Veesaar.
Football coach Bill Belichick stood behind the seated audience in a crowd of other notable Tar Heels, including program great Tyler Hansbrough, nearly a dozen former players and women’s basketball coach Courtney Banghart.
“I am an outsider coming into a really intimate family,” Malone said, pointing out the Dean Smith pin he wore on the lapel of his dark navy jacket. “I have to balance — the delicate balance of — being true to the past and honoring tradition, while also having my eyes on the future. The game is always changing. And so if you see us doing things a little bit differently, it’s OK. Embrace that. It’s OK.
“…I have a tremendous amount of respect for what this program and the history that they occupy and NCAA basketball history, but we’re going to do it our way. I’m going to use people like Coach Williams, Coach Eddie Fogler, [assistant coach] Pat Sullivan — all the guys that are here — and learn from them and push forward.”
In some ways, Malone already laid the foundation for that vision, though he didn’t know it at the time.
Malone, who was fired by the Denver Nuggets in April 2025, initially reached out to Sullivan to inquire about attending some of UNC’s practices when he came to Chapel Hill to visit his daughter Bridget, a freshman on the volleyball team.
When Malone arrived at the Smith Center with a notepad in hand for his first practice in early October, a team manager led him to a spot in the stands, far away from the court, where visitors usually sit. When Davis noticed, he sent the manager to relocate Malone to a spot on the court.
“I didn’t think anything of it,” Malone said. “And after practice,[Sullivan] grabbed me and said, ‘Hey, that’s really special. No one is allowed to sit down here.’ So for Coach Davis to one, allow me to be down there and feel a part of it, and to have him invite me to speak to the team after meant the world to me, because I know that wasn’t something that happens to a guy that was an ‘outsider.'”
“… What he taught me was, treat this place with respect in regard to all those that came before you.”
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