North Carolina sign former Nuggets head coach Michael Malone for six years, $50 million

[p]Malone, 57, led the [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/denver-nuggets/CxvW27TI/"]Denver Nuggets[/a] to their first-ever NBA Championship during the 2022-2023 season and became the franchise's all-time leader in wins (471) as their head coach. [/p][p]His average annual salary of $8.33 million at UNC will officially make him the second-highest-paid coach in men's college basketball. [/p][embed guid="fb70941c-f9e9-4092-af60-cb3d1e7f3ac2" url="https://x.com/UNC_Basketball/status/2041603289846849993?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p]After spending a decade as an assistant coach in the NBA, Malone started his head coaching career with the [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/sacramento-kings/CvwE1OCB/"]Sacramento Kings[/a], where he spent two seasons before spending the next 10 in Denver. [/p][p]In his 10 years with the Nuggets, the team had only two losing records - his first two seasons. Since then, Denver had never once finished a season with fewer than 46 wins. [/p][p]As for UNC, they've faced back-to-back years of being bounced in the first round of the NCAA tournament under Davis. In his first season with the team, Davis led the [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/unc-tar-heels/E5BsxSbQ/"]Tar Heels[/a] to the Finals, where they lost to [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/kansas-jayhawks/d6rN2o2L/"]Kansas[/a] 72-69. [/p][p]The following year, UNC failed to make the tournament for just the fifth time since 2000 before making it to the Sweet 16 the following year to be eliminated by [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/alabama-crimson-tide/h8I8INuS/"]Alabama[/a] - the same year UNC won the ACC Championship for the first, and only, time under Davis as head coach. [/p][p]Malone hasn't coached in college since 2001, when he was an assistant for Manhattan College.[/p][embed guid="74f46f41-30fc-471c-8818-10e3ba196c36" url="https://x.com/UNC_Basketball/status/2041599479854268841?s=20" social-type="twitter" /]