
Nuggets fire head coach Michael Malone, GM Calvin Booth three games before playoffs in NBA shocker
NY Post
That Denver altitude really can lead to some bizarre happenings.
The Nuggets shockingly fired championship head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth on Tuesday with just three games remaining in the regular season.
Assistant coach David Adelman is being promoted to interim head coach.
“This decision was not made lightly and was evaluated very carefully, and we do it only with the intention of giving our group the best chance at competing for the 2025 NBA Championship and delivering another title to Denver and our fans everywhere,” Nuggets president Josh Kroenke said in a statement.
There is a myriad of reasons why these moves — and more so in the case of Malone — are absolute stunners, perhaps the most shocking transactions of the NBA season behind the Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis swap between the Lakers and the Mavericks at the trade deadline.
Perhaps at the forefront of the oddity is the timing, with ESPN reporting Malone’s dismissal is tied for the latest coaching firing in league history with Hubie Brown in 1980-81.

The old genius had finally gotten one move ahead of himself. That seemed clear. There were eight games left in the hockey season. The Devils, veteran team, were already inside the bracket, comfortably, on the way to 102 points. They’d been mailing it in lately, more a reflection of the time in the schedule than any lack of talent.