Nuggets’ Michael Malone shares the fatherly side to coaching his players

Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone has established himself as one of the most highly respected coaches in the NBA. Malone has also helped build the Nuggets, who won the title last season and are favorites to repeat in 2023-24, into a yearly championship contender. During his time in the NBA, he’s earned a large amount of respect from the players he has coached.

Malone is the son of another respected basketball coach, Brendan Malone. A large amount of what Michael has learned as a coach, he credits to his late father. One of those things is how to treat players.

“One of the greatest lessons for me that he ever gave was, ‘The greatest gift I can give any of my players is confidence,'” said Malone. “So if they go 0-for-3 and they look over and I’m like, ‘Make a shot, c’mon!’ That’s not gonna help them. But if I encourage them and stay with them, and they know it’s genuine, then they have a chance to go out there an play to the best of their ability. So yeah, I’ve got 18 sons and two daughters.”

Malone has two daughters with his wife, Jocelyn Malone. On top of his real family, he considers each one of his players as like a son to him.

Malone’s respect towards his players, as well as his fire to win, is what the Nuggets love about him.

“He’s a competitor at heart,” DeAndre Jordan said of Malone, per Ben Rohrbach of Yahoo! Sports. “We can see the fight and tenacity he has. He wants to win just as much as we do, and I think when you have a guy like that at the helm it’s very important, and it’s contagious to the players, and we all kind of rub off on each other.”