You just can't help but laugh.
After all the posturing about North Carolina being able to get whoever they wanted to fill their head coaching vacancy, the Tar Heels struck out on all their top targets. It figured if guys like Tommy Lloyd and Dusty May said no, they would be forced to hire an NBA coach. And they did.
Just not the one their fans expected.
North Carolina clearly didn't want to wait for Billy Donovan, who was not going to engage until the end of the Chicago Bulls' season, which would have been smack in the middle of the Transfer Portal window. So instead, they went full-on panic mode and hired a twice-fired NBA coach who happens to have a daughter who plays volleyball in Chapel Hill. So much for going outside the family, eh Heels?
According to multiple reports, North Carolina will hire Michael Malone to be the program's next head coach in a move that came out of absolutely nowhere:
Sources: North Carolina intends to hire longtime NBA coach Michael Malone as the school’s next basketball coach. He’s an NBA Championship coach with the Denver Nuggets from the 2022-23 season and has won 510 games as an NBA head coach. pic.twitter.com/JwJmUNRLQT
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) April 6, 2026
UNC hires Michael Malone as the program's next head coach
Your UNC fan friends will cling to the fact that he led the Denver Nuggets to the 2023 NBA Championship. But I don't believe he'll be able to bring Nikola Jokic with him to Chapel Hill.
In 10 seasons as the Nuggets' head coach, despite having the best player in the world in Jokic, the Nuggets only advanced past the second round of the NBA Playoffs twice.
Prior to coaching the Nuggets, Malone spent a year and some change as the head coach of the Sacramento Kings before he was fired with a 39-67 overall record.
They'll also ignore the toxic culture Malone created in Denver, with his tirades growing tiresome and ultimately leading to him being let go less than two years after winning the NBA Championship.
Malone has never been a head coach at the college level. He hasn't been a coach in college of any kind in 25 years. His last experience in college came back in 2001 at Manhattan University. He's held assistant and head coaching roles in the NBA ever since.
Malone won't move the needle as a recruiter, and his antics and outbursts won't play well with the age group he'll be tasked with coaching at UNC.
It turns out that North Carolina legend Tyler Hansbrough was right about where the Heels stand nationally now.