By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — Steve Newmark refused to take no for an answer, and by the time he left Michael Malone’s house on Easter Sunday, the University of North Carolina’s search for its next men’s basketball coach had its turning point.
Malone had already said no more than once.
Even his daughter Bridget, a member of the UNC volleyball team, got a no when she urged him to take the job, Malone said Tuesday at his introductory news conference in the Smith Center.
“She said, ‘No, you should do it. You should come.’ And I said, ‘I don’t think so.’ ” Malone said.
Newmark, the Executive Associate Athletic Director and a central figure on the search committee, kept pushing. He flew to Malone’s Denver-area home on Easter Sunday to make a final pitch that was not a formality so much as a last swing at a once-in-a-lifetime hire.
“What Steve didn’t tell you, if you want to know something about Steve Newmark — persistence defined,” Malone said. “That guy would not take no for an answer. I made a decision. I felt good about it, and Steve said, ‘Can I fly to your house on Easter Sunday?’ We spent five hours together.”
By the end of that day, Malone said, the decision felt less like a leap and more like a door that was not going to open again.
“Full disclosure, every time I said no, I was regretting that,” Malone said. “I was like, I think I’m making a mistake. Jobs like North Carolina do not come [often]. I told Steve at one point, I know this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This wasn’t a situation where I could say, ‘Now is not the right time.’ This was, ‘it’s now or never.’ ”
That no became a yes on Sunday night, when Malone and his wife, Jocelyn, talked it through after Newmark’s visit, Malone said the meeting “changed my mind” and “changed my wife’s mind,” shifting his mindset from hesitation to urgency.
“Not only taking this job,” Malone said, “I’m attacking this job.”
UNC is attacking with him. Malone’s deal is for six years and $50 million, averaging $8.33 million per season. It vaults him near the top of the pay scale nationally, second only to Bill Self of Kansas, and signals how forcefully Carolina intends to move in a market where elite coaches and elite rosters are intertwined.
The search committee that recommended Malone included Newmark, Director of Athletics Bubba Cunningham, Board of Trustees Chair Malcolm Turner, UNC legend Antawn Jamison and Rams Club Executive Board of Directors Vice Chair Vaughn Moore.
Malone thanked them all in his opening remarks, lingering on what it means when people attach their names to you.
“I never take it lightly when somebody believes in you, and they endorse you, and they feel that strong to put their name behind you,” Malone said. “That’s what Antawn did. That’s what Kenny Smith did.”
Newmark described a process that started broadly and quickly became specific. But he also said the group had a small cluster of names at the top early, and that Malone was not a late pivot.
“When that process started, we knew that our mandate was to find the most elite basketball coach that would be the right fit for Carolina,” Newmark said. “So, if you can imagine, we cast a fairly wide net, college, pros. There’s a lot of elite coaches out there.”
The process began with a phone call that was both practical and revealing. Newmark said he talked to Pat Sullivan, a former UNC player who has been on Coach Hubert Davis’ staff, to get Malone’s phone number. He knew Sullivan had a professional relationship with Malone.
Malone had been around the program last semester as a parent and as a basketball junkie who wanted to sit in on practices.
“The way that we actually started the process is where we ended the process,” Newmark said.
Newmark said the first call lasted about an hour and quickly established that Malone had been paying attention to Carolina basketball long before the job opened.
“What stood out right away is that he’s a basketball encyclopedia,” Newmark said. “He went through almost every player on our current roster, their strengths, weaknesses. He also probably listed every UNC alum that had ever come from the New York City pipeline, starting, I think, with Frank McGuire.”
Malone, who had been fired by Denver late in the 2024–25 season and spent the past year working as an ESPN analyst, told Newmark he assumed the initial contact was a courtesy.
“He said, ‘Steve, I appreciate the call. When Sully told me you were going to give me a ring, I thought it was a courtesy call,” Newmark said. “He said, ‘I really haven’t been contemplating the college landscape. I’ve got a lot of love and passion for UNC, but this is something that really wasn’t on my radar screen.’ ”
Newmark said the committee leaned heavily on Carolina’s internal voices as the search sharpened, including Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams, former assistant coach and player Eddie Fogler and UNC star and NBA champion Kenny Smith. It was Fogler, Newmark said, who asked a simple question early: “What exactly are you looking for?”
Newmark said the answer came in three parts, and each kept pointing back to Malone.
“First and foremost, they need to be an elite teacher, innovator, strategist and leader,” Newmark said. “Second, they need to display and possess the character and integrity that’s consistent with our university and our principles. And then third, they need to believe in, not just acknowledge and recognize, they need to believe in the importance of the Carolina family, in the Carolina tradition and what that means to the UNC community.”
Newmark said the committee mentioned a quote he read in a book by Chapel Hill native (and occasional Tar Heel Tribune columnist) Thad Williamson as a way to frame that third piece.
The point, Newmark said, was that Carolina’s pull reaches well beyond people who played or studied here, and the next coach had to embrace that truth rather than sell it as a slogan.
“We wanted a coach that would embrace that and recognize that that was part of their mission,” Newmark said. “For us, Coach Malone exemplifies every single one of these. He checked every single box.”
The hiring also represented a philosophical shift for a program long defined by continuity within the Carolina family. Newmark acknowledged the history, then said there was consensus this time that Carolina needed to look broader than the traditional internal pipeline.
“We recognized when we started this process that we’ve had an unbelievable history, starting with Dean Smith, and we’ve always had an opportunity to stay in the family,” Newmark said. “I believe there was a consensus at this time that we needed to look broader.”
Malone, a Queens, N.Y., native, comes from outside the family in the strictest sense. He did not play at UNC, did not coach at UNC and has not been a college coach since 2001, when he left Manhattan College for the New York Knicks. But he arrives with a résumé that reads like a modern basketball education.
He was an NBA head coach for 12 seasons, including 10 (2015–25) with Denver, leading the Nuggets to the 2023 NBA title and three 50-win seasons. He is the winningest coach in Nuggets history with 471 wins. He won 510 regular-season games, combining two seasons as head coach of the Sacramento Kings and 10 years in Denver. His teams delivered five of the 10 winningest seasons in Nuggets history, and his 44 postseason wins are 20 more than any other Denver coach.
He coached three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić in Denver and NBA all-time scoring leader LeBron James while an assistant in Cleveland. His 2023 championship team featured Jokić, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, Michael Porter Jr. and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. He also coached players such as Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Chris Paul and Tar Heel alumni Jamison, Danny Green and Harrison Barnes. Along the way, he worked with coaches such as Jeff Van Gundy, Lenny Wilkens, Mike Brown, Monty Williams and Mark Jackson, finishing in the top five in NBA Coach of the Year voting twice.
Malone said the decision was ultimately driven by the size of the opportunity and the pull of the program’s history.
“People keep asking me, ‘Coach, why would you leave a chance of coaching in the NBA?’ ” he said. “It wasn’t an easy decision, but what I kept thinking about was, I have a chance to be a part of something special, the history, tradition, be a part of something much bigger than myself.”
He called UNC the only college job he would have considered.
“Any other job I wouldn’t even answer the phone,” Malone said
The Easter Sunday meeting, he said, gave him clarity on how Carolina viewed the job and how the athletics department intended to support him in the changing landscape of college sports.
“Just hearing his vision and talking about the ins and outs of the job,” Malone said. “[Newmark] wants to partner in this. He wants to hire a coach who is innovative, has character, understands the tradition of excellence here at Carolina, but he also wants to hire a coach that he can be a partner with and build something special.”
Newmark said the committee’s interest in Malone was not a speculative feeler. He said the first call was made because Malone was already in the top tier of candidates the group believed fit Carolina, and that once the committee aligned, the offer list narrowed to one.
“We gave out one offer, and that was to Coach Malone,” Newmark said.
Malone said he understands what comes with the job, including the pressure and the history that will frame every decision. He wore a Dean Smith lapel pin on Tuesday and said he intends to honor tradition while still coaching with a modern lens.
“I am an outsider coming into a really intimate family,” Malone said. “I have to balance being true to the past and honoring tradition while also having my eyes on the future. The game is always changing, and if you see us doing things a little bit differently, it’s okay. Embrace that. It’s okay.”
He said he plans to lean on people who know Carolina best, including Williams, Fogler and former players who have already been back around the program, while making it clear that the program will move forward with its own identity.
“We’re going to do it our way,” Malone said.
He also addressed the Bridget narrative head-on, calling it a footnote rather than a reason.
“I did not come here for her; I know that’s a narrative,” said Malone, adding that he’s happy that it will be easy to see her matches next season.
Bridget, he said, was careful not to let her father’s name swallow her own college experience, but she still wanted him here. Malone said he asked her directly whether he would be stepping into her space, and he said her answer removed the last hesitation.
“The best part about it,” Malone said, “is my daughter Bridget. She said, ‘Dad, I want you to come.’ So I did.”
Now the work starts quickly. Malone told the team Tuesday afternoon that he had a vision for style of play and culture, and he said the immediate to-do list is long, from the transfer portal to staff hires to recruiting.
Newmark, standing beside him, framed it as a marriage of fit and ambition that took persistence to finish.
“Coach, thank you for entrusting us and coming to join us,” Newmark said. “I fully expect to see more banners hanging.”
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Roster assuming all players with eligibility other than Caleb Wilson, Isaiah Denis, Derek Dixon, Kyan Evans, Jonathan Powell, Jaydon Young, James Brown and Zayden High return and the players in the incoming freshman class hold in their commitment, which would put UNC six under the 15-player limit. The class for next season is listed.
| No./ Stars | Class | Player | Pos. | Hgt | Wgt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Freshman | Dylan Mingo | CG | 6–5 | 190 |
| 5 | Freshman | Maximo Adams | SF | 6–7 | 205 |
| 4 | Freshman | Malloy Smith | CG | 6–5 | 190 |
| 40 | Junior | Ivan Matlekovic | 5 | 7–0 | 255 |
| 44 | Senior | Luca Bogavac | W | 6–6 | 215 |
| 13 | RS senior | Henri Veesaar | 5 | 7–0 | 225 |
| 15 | Senior | Jarin Stevenson | 4 | 6–10 | 215 |
| Walk-ons | |||||
| 25 | Junior | John Holbrook | 4 | 6–8 | 230 |
| 32 | Senior | Evan Smith | 2 | 6–1 | 195 |
In transfer portal
| Player | Class next season | Pos. | Hgt | Wgt |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| James Brown | Senior | C | 6–10 | 240 |
| Isaiah Denis | Sophomore | G | 6–4 | 180 |
| Derek Dixon | Sophomore | G | 6–5 | 200 |
| Kyan Evans | Senior | G | 6–2 | 175 |
| Zayden High | Junior | C | 6–10 | 230 |
| Jonathan Powell | Junior | G | 6–6 | 190 |
| Jaydon Young | Senior | G | 6–4 | 200 |
Key offseason dates
Tuesday — Transfer portal opened
April 16 — Deadline to request evaluation from the NBA Undergraduate Advisory Committee
11:59 p.m. April 21 — Transfer portal closes
11:59 p.m. April 26 — NBA early entry deadline
May 8–10 — G-League Combine in Chicago
May 10 — NBA Draft Lottery
May 10–17 — NBA Draft Combine in Chicago
May 27 (11:59 p.m.) — NCAA early-entry withdrawal deadline
Week of June 22 (date to be determined) — NBA Draft
Photos by Smith Hardy
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