Brendan Malone, a longtime NBA coach and the father of Nuggets head coach Michael Malone, has died, the team announced Tuesday. He was 81.
Malone won two NBA championships as an assistant coach for the Detroit Pistons in 1989 and ’90, and he was on the Orlando Magic coaching staff that won an Eastern Conference title in 2009. He was instrumental in designing and coaching the Bad Boy Pistons’ “Jordan Rules,” widely regarded as one of the most effective defensive strategies against Michael Jordan in his prime.
Malone had stints in various roles with the Knicks, Pistons, Raptors, Pacers, SuperSonics, Cavaliers and Magic over the course of a 30-year career in the NBA. He was Toronto’s first head coach in franchise history, helming the Raptors during the 1995-96 season, and he served as Cleveland’s interim head coach in 2004-05. He also was briefly a part of his son’s inaugural Sacramento Kings staff in 2013, though he ultimately resigned before the season.
Malone also coached at Rhode Island, Syracuse, Fordham and Yale during the 1970s and ’80s after starting his career as a high school coach in New York City, where Michael Malone was born.
With the Nuggets opening preseason play Tuesday against the Suns, Michael Malone was not with the team in Phoenix as of Tuesday afternoon, according to a team spokesperson. Lead assistant David Adelman will take over as interim head coach while Malone is out.
“It is with tremendous sadness that we share the passing of longtime NBA coach Brendan Malone, who holds a special place amongst the organization and will be a Denver Nugget forever,” the Nuggets said in a statement. “Coach Brendan Malone was a great man who left behind a great legacy in the world of basketball, but he will be remembered even more for the amazing husband, father, son and grandfather that he was and the profound impact he had on the friends, family and colleagues who were lucky enough to know him. Our thoughts are with the entire Malone family and all of Brendan’s loved ones who are feeling this loss today.”
The Pistons, Raptors, Magic and Knicks also released statements Tuesday recognizing Malone’s contributions to the sport and offering condolences to his family.
Michael Malone frequently cited his dad as inspiration and as one of his greatest basketball educators throughout Denver’s 2023 NBA championship run. After the Nuggets clinched the title in June, the younger Malone went to his office for a moment of quiet and called his father.
“I couldn’t talk for a minute,” Michael Malone said at the time. “I was emotional, and I just told him, I said, ‘Listen, it’s important for you to know how much I love you.’ And we don’t throw that word around a lot in my family.
“For him to see his son be a head coach and win a world championship … he was at a loss for words. So I love my father, the best coach I’ve ever known.”
