Michael Malone made his return to the NBA playoffs on Tuesday night, but he wasn’t on the sidelines; he was providing commentary and analysis for ESPN. It was Malone’s first major public appearance since being fired by the Nuggets with less than a week remaining in the regular season.
Malone hasn’t made any indications about his future, but he’d likely be a top candidate for any coaching vacancy in the league if he wanted it. He’d also be in line for a job in broadcasting as the league rearranges its coverage this offseason.
Malone has always been open and honest with the media and has been known to give off a great quote, sometimes even oversharing. He also has a great mind for the game and would bring great analytical insight to any broadcast, as he showed on Tuesday night while breaking down the Western Conference Finals.
Malone calls OKC best fans in NBA
Whether intended or not, Malone took a few not-so-subtle jabs at his former team during the ESPN broadcast for Game 1. First, when talking about the atmosphere in Paycom Center for the Western Conference Finals, Malone was full of praise for the Oklahoma City crowd and referred to Thunder fans as the “best fans in the NBA”.
There’s nothing wrong with this comment, and Malone was just trying to praise a great fanbase that was extremely fired up for their team’s biggest game in years. But it’s impossible not to think about the Nuggets, the team Malone spent the past 10 seasons coaching, right up until April.
Malone says SGA is MVP
As if Nuggets fans were irked enough by Malone’s comment about the crowd, he doubled down on little digs at Denver after the game when he said that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander “showed why he’s the MVP”.
Again, this is a fairly innocuous comment, and most of the NBA world has accepted that SGA is likely to win the award, but it’s a stark contrast from what Malone was saying a couple of months ago.
Malone and Nikola Jokic were obviously together for the better part of a decade and had a great relationship, experiencing incredible highs as a partnership. Malone always stuck up for Jokic and battled for his MVP, including a month ago when he said people who didn’t think Jokic’s stats prove he’s the MVP were “full of ****”.
Obviously, nobody was expecting Malone to get up there and wax poetic about the team that just fired him unceremoniously, but that didn’t make this any easier for Nuggets fans to hear. Those looking for some level of closure got anything but that on Monday night.
If anything, it felt like Malone was twisting the knife and sending a few stray shots the way of his former employer. I doubt that was the case, and everything Malone said fell in line with the job he was tasked with doing on Monday, but it was too soon for Nuggets fans, and the scars are too raw.