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Michael Malone hasn’t coached college basketball since 2001, as an assistant for a 14–15 Manhattan team.
That didn’t stop North Carolina from making him one of the game’s highest-paid coaches.
Malone’s contract with the Tar Heels was made public Tuesday, when the former Nuggets head coach and NBA champion was introduced to the media as the replacement for former coach and player Hubert Davis.
The 54-year-old agreed to a six-year, $50 million contract that will pay $7.5 million in its first season and increases annually, topping out at $9 million in its final year. Malone will only trail Kansas’s Bill Self—who has won two national championships—as the game’s highest-paid coach. Self makes almost $9 million annually, according to USA Today.
“His track record, he warrants that type of compensation,” incoming UNC athletic director Steve Newmark said Tuesday. “We also believe this institution and where it sits in the basketball hierarchy should be paying for what we believe is elite.”
Malone’s contract also comes with bonuses that total $1.475 million annually for various accomplishments both in the NCAA tournament and for individual coaching awards. He would net an additional $50,000 for being named ACC Coach of the Year and $100,000 for winning the ACC regular-season title or the conference tournament.
North Carolina was inconsistent under Davis, who took over for longtime coach Roy Williams in 2021. Williams made the tournament in 16 of his 18 seasons as coach, with just one first-round exit.
The son of longtime NBA and college assistant Brendan Malone, Michael coached in college at Oakland, Providence, and Manhattan from 1994–2001. He was hired by the Knicks in 2001 and coached in the NBA for the next 24 years, briefly leading the Kings and 2013 and 2014 before coaching the Nuggets from 2015 to 2025. The Nuggets won the 2023 NBA title with Malone coaching the All-Star duo of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. He was shockingly fired in April of last year as the team also let GM Calvin Booth’s contract expire.
Malone’s UNC contract also comes with language tied to revenue-sharing. Malone’s players will receive at least $6.75 million annually in revenue-sharing funds, according to his contract. For context, Michigan’s national championship winning team cost about $10 million. That cost was a combination of revenue-sharing money and NIL deals, but the nearly $7 million gives Malone a strong starting point to build a competitive roster.
North Carolina is also giving Malone a $4 million salary pool for his coaching staff. He’s expected to retain assistant coaches Sean May and Patrick Sullivan, who both played at UNC, according to The Athletic.
“We need to provide him the resources that enable him to succeed,” Newmark told reporters. “We fixate a lot on the economics—and I understand it, because it’s new and different in college sports—but it’s our obligation in the athletic department to equip coach Malone with what he needs to be able to succeed.”
Unlike Malone’s now-colleague Bill Belichick, walking away to the pros wouldn’t come cheap.. Belichick owes just $1 million if he left for another gig. Malone’s buyout, though, rivals his salary. He would owe $8 million if he takes another job before April 1, 2027, with the amount decreasing by $1.5 million annually throughout the life of the contract. Malone’s term sheet does not designate a buyout difference in college or NBA jobs. Should North Carolina fire Malone before the deal ends, the school would owe him 80% of the remaining money on his contract.
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