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There's no need to deny it. The North Carolina men's college basketball program went a bit outside the box with the hire of Michael Malone as its new head coach. But given what Malone accomplished with the Denver Nuggets — winning the 2023 NBA championship, helping to develop Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray into bona fide superstars — perhaps it's not that crazy for Malone to enjoy some success with the Tar Heels.
What is actually crazy is that North Carolina, or its social media team, suggested Malone had a major hand in the "player development" of many other notable non-Denver NBA icons and superstars.
A new promotional graphic from the Tar Heels centers on Malone while implying he helped develop LeBron James, Steph Curry, and Chris Paul, among others. Uh, sure? He totally helped those guys become living legends with his assistant coaching stops. That's definitely something worth amplifying to everyone without a hint of irony:
Listen, I know Malone was around James in his early Cleveland Cavaliers days. I know he was around Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green right before the Golden State Warriors became an era-defining team. I know he probably rubbed off on Paul somehow, someway, right before he left the then-New Orleans Hornets.
But c'mon now. No one serious is going to claim that Malone had this measurable impact on some of the most important NBA players of this millennium, many of whom were already established stars before he coached them, just because he was an assistant at one point in their respective careers. That's absurd. Again, I don't think Jokić and Murray become the NBA's best duo without Malone's steady guidance in Denver. The first sentence of Malone's legacy, as it stands, is these two becoming court-tilting superstars for a perennial Nuggets title contender because he empowered them. To me, that much can't be argued.
Everyone else on this graphic feels like a stretchhhhhhh. That might be an understatement. Hoops fans online agreed with this assessment.
Yeah, I would say "shameless" is definitely the right word for this UNC Malone graphic.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Michael Malone: UNC absurdly claims he developed LeBron, Steph Curry
Continue reading...
What is actually crazy is that North Carolina, or its social media team, suggested Malone had a major hand in the "player development" of many other notable non-Denver NBA icons and superstars.
A new promotional graphic from the Tar Heels centers on Malone while implying he helped develop LeBron James, Steph Curry, and Chris Paul, among others. Uh, sure? He totally helped those guys become living legends with his assistant coaching stops. That's definitely something worth amplifying to everyone without a hint of irony:
Listen, I know Malone was around James in his early Cleveland Cavaliers days. I know he was around Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green right before the Golden State Warriors became an era-defining team. I know he probably rubbed off on Paul somehow, someway, right before he left the then-New Orleans Hornets.
But c'mon now. No one serious is going to claim that Malone had this measurable impact on some of the most important NBA players of this millennium, many of whom were already established stars before he coached them, just because he was an assistant at one point in their respective careers. That's absurd. Again, I don't think Jokić and Murray become the NBA's best duo without Malone's steady guidance in Denver. The first sentence of Malone's legacy, as it stands, is these two becoming court-tilting superstars for a perennial Nuggets title contender because he empowered them. To me, that much can't be argued.
Everyone else on this graphic feels like a stretchhhhhhh. That might be an understatement. Hoops fans online agreed with this assessment.
Yeah, I would say "shameless" is definitely the right word for this UNC Malone graphic.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Michael Malone: UNC absurdly claims he developed LeBron, Steph Curry
Continue reading...
