By R.L. Bynum
Michael Malone was on track to become a Secret Service agent when a low-paying, entry-level college job set him on the path to coaching stardom.
That’s one of the interesting stories from a 2020 NBA.com interview with his late father, Brendan Malone, an accomplished coach who was instrumental in developing the “Jordan rules” during his days on the Detroit Pistons coaching staff.
Brendan Malone said his son “took the physical and the mental exams and passed,” and that he was “two weeks away from going to the barracks” when a phone call from Providence coach Pete Gillen pulled him back.
“I thought he wanted to talk to me, and Pete said, ‘No, I want to talk to Michael.’ He offered Michael a job. Michael didn’t go to the Secret Service,” Brendan Malone said in the interview conducted while Denver was playing in the bubble. “Well, he’s a serious guy. I’ll just say he would’ve taken the job very seriously and been someone you wouldn’t want to mess with.”
The more Carolina-relevant part is what Brendan Malone said happened just before it, because it runs straight through the man whose name is on the arena where Michael Malone will try to rebuild a roster in the modern portal era.
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— Six early priorities for Malone at UNC
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Brendan Malone said his son had already been chasing coaching jobs with the persistence of someone who understood how hard they were to come by for young coaches.
“He’d written letters to a lot of head coaches for jobs, and the first coach who answered was Dean Smith, who didn’t offer him anything,” Brendan Malone said.
Malone’s father, who died in 2023 at 88, has a lot to do with his passion for the game and for Carolina basketball.
“I have a passion for teaching the game of basketball, which I learned from my father,” Michael Malone said at Tuesday’s press conference. “My father … was a huge Carolina fan and a huge Dean Smith fan, and he passed that on to me, and I know he’s looking down today, and he’s very, very proud, and I wish he was here.”
Brendan Malone was a longtime NBA coach, which gives his words added weight. He knew better than most how quickly coaching can turn, how unstable it can feel for families, and he admitted he tried to steer his son away from it.
Did he try to discourage Michael from pursuing coaching as a profession?
“It’s not easy on a family,” he said. “I wanted him to go get married and have kids.”
At Carolina, Malone arrives with his family as part of the story, not off to the side, with his daughter, Bridget, on the Carolina volleyball team.
Brendan Malone, when describing his son’s growth as a coach, did not first talk about offense or defense. He talked about maturity, about how a coach presents himself when the game tightens, which is also how a coach earns the trust required to lead in a fishbowl like Chapel Hill.
“I’m impressed with Michael’s coaching and his matchups and the way he uses his bench,” Brendan Malone said. “Each year, he has become a better coach. He’s controlling his emotions on the sidelines. The team’s success is a reflection of coaching.”
Brendan Malone also described how his son’s in-game identity sharpened over time.
“He knows that when the game’s on the line, he has to go to the two-man game with [Jamal] Murray and [Nikola] Jokic on the high pick and roll. It’s very difficult to guard,” Brendan Malone said. “You’ve got Murray coming off a 3-point shot, and if Jokic flashes, he’s going to be open for a 3-point shot. He has that figured out. His substitutions are also very good.”
Brendan Malone explained the best advice he gave his son.
“The best thing you can do as a coach is to instill confidence in your team,” he said. “Always be in the foxhole with them when they’re going through bad times. You have to pick them up after they’re down.”
He pushed the point further, warning against the transactional coaching personality that shows up only when the team is winning.
“I told Michael to be the same coach after a win and a loss,” Brendan Malone said. “The players have to feel you care about them individually.”
If that sounds familiar in Chapel Hill, it should. Smith’s program became a model not only because it won, but because it sold a set of values, and because former players, decades later, still spoke as if they belonged to something that lasted well after their UNC careers ended.
Brendan Malone tied his message to another coach, Chuck Daly.
“We were walking one time, and he said, ‘I’m not the greatest X-and-O guy, but coaching in the NBA is a people-person business. You have to get along with your players, the general manager and the press,’ ” Brendan Malone said. “That’s what Chuck did. He subordinated his ego to the team’s ego. That’s what made him a success.”
You can read the entire interview here.
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Roster assuming all players with eligibility other than Caleb Wilson, Luka Bogavac, Isaiah Denis, Derek Dixon, Kyan Evans, Jonathan Powell, 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 star | Freshman | Dylan Mingo | CG | 6–5 | 190 |
| 5 star | Freshman | Maximo Adams | SF | 6–7 | 205 |
| 4 star | Freshman | Malloy Smith | CG | 6–5 | 190 |
| 40 | Junior | Ivan Matlekovic | 5 | 7–0 | 255 |
| 4 | Senior | Jaydon Young | G | 6–4 | 200 |
| 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 | Next school |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luka Bogavac | Senior | W | 6–6 | 215 | |
| 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 | Pittsburgh |
Key offseason dates
Last Tuesday — Transfer portal opened
Thursday — 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
Photo via @UNC_Basketball
