Michael Malone coached Nikola Jokić to a championship just a few years ago.
He’s now on ESPN.
Oh, how times change. But in this era of player empowerment, it’d be silly to think Jokić didn’t at least play some part in Malone’s dismissal. No, Jokić isn’t pulling strings and firing coaches like some imagine LeBron James does, but a three-time NBA MVP probably gets a heads-up when their head coach and GM get canned just days before the playoffs.
Now that the Nuggets are out of the postseason, Malone joined ESPN’s NBA studio for the Western Conference Finals. Inside the NBA got Draymond Green, ESPN got Malone, who’ll be joining Malika Andrews, Stephen A. Smith, Bob Myers, and Kendrick Perkins on NBA Countdown.
Game 1 of the WCF on Tuesday saw the Oklahoma City Thunder — and newly named 2024-25 NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — run roughshod over the Minnesota Timberwolves in a 114-88 drubbing.
Now, rewind two months. If you asked Malone back then, when he was still coaching Denver, his MVP take would’ve been different.
“My thing is this: if you didn’t know Nikola had won three MVPs, and I put Player A and Player B on paper—and you had no idea—the guy averaging a triple-double, leading top three in all the major statistical categories, doing things no one’s ever done? He wins MVP 10 times out of 10,” Malone said. “And I get it—MVP means something different for everybody. Cool. But I will never negatively recruit. Shai’s not just a good player; he’s a great player. And if he wins it, I’ll actually clap my hands and be happy for him, because he’s such a great guy, who’s a great player, and is good for this game.
“It’s not Nikola versus Shai. For me, it’s me promoting my guy because I know what he means to this game. And if you look at it from a historical perspective, he’s doing things no one’s ever done.”
That was Malone, literally two months ago.
Now? Malone’s tune has changed.
“Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, he showed why he’s the MVP,” Malone said following OKC’s Game 1 win. “He took over in the second half, did so in a very efficient manner, and put the team on his back when they needed him to do so.”
So, did Malone throw shade at Jokić? Depends on how you read it. But it’s hard to ignore the shift from “Nikola’s the standard” coach to “Shai earned it” analyst, especially coming from a coach who was still on an NBA bench two months ago.