The North Carolina Tar Heels went in a different direction with their coaching search, nabbing former Denver Nuggets head coach Mike Malone.
There has been a ton of smoke connecting current Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan to the North Carolina Tar Heels. But UNC went in a different direction with their coaching search, nabbing former Denver Nuggets head coach Mike Malone on Monday per Shams Charania of ESPN.
The Tar Heels have an already impressive incoming freshman class with NY-native and five-star PG Dylan Mingo, and four-star wing from Sierra Canyon HS, Maximo Adams headlining their class. The Tar Heels seemingly wanted a big-name head coach with some NBA experience, which led them to considering Donovan, who has the added bonus of being a Hall of Fame coach with back-to-back NCAA Championships to his name in 2006 and 2007.
North Carolina was likely not willing to wait for Donovan to take his time to make the decision. They are concerned with keeping their current recruits and starting off on the right foot with a new regime. Donovan potentially wanted to wait to make his final decision after the NBA season and potentially draft lottery was over, in order to more accurately compare the outlooks of the Tar Heels and Bulls respective situations.
The Tar Heels going with Malone is a shocking choice just because his name hadn't been heavily connected to them, but the move makes perfect sense on paper.
Malone himself played college ball at Loyola (Maryland) and had assistant coaching jobs with Oakland, Providence, and Manhattan before moving on to the NBA coaching ranks. Malone first coached in the NBA in 2001 as an assistant with the New York Knicks, before stops with the Cleveland Cavaliers, New Orleans Hornets, and Golden State Warriors before he became the head coach of the Sacramento Kings in 2013.
Despite being moderately successful in Sacramento, he was fired in December of 2014, which led him to the Nuggets head coaching job in 2015. Malone, of course, found great success with NBA superstar Nikola Jokic, winning an NBA Championship in 2023. Malone has not coached since the Nuggets let him go in April of 2025 as they cleaned house, firing Malone and GM Calvin Booth.
Malone accepting the North Carolina job ends their pursuit of Billy Donovan. This, of course, does not guarantee anything, as we may hear Donovan's name continue to pop up as more NBA and NCAA head coaching vacancies appear on the docket.
Donovan accepted a mutli-year contract extension in July of 2025. The Bulls next game is against the Washington Wizards on Tuesday, April 7th.