Former UNC basketball coach to Michael Malone: 'Embrace history, but don’t be paralyzed by it'

Former UNC basketball coach to Michael Malone: 'Embrace history, but don’t be paralyzed by it' originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here . Michael Malone's jump from the NBA to college might put him right where he belongs.

The former NBA veteran coach gained knowledge at the next level, but has the style and edginess to thrive for the North Carolina Tar Heels basketball program in a new era. You could even say this bold move by both Tar Heels officials and Malone might be viewed as the most underrated sometime in the future. No other coach has won an NBA title before sliding into a role of developing talent for a league in a two-year span.

A rare but fitting opportunity to shake up the game as we know it. Malone's background aligns with the decades of success established by those UNC coaches who came before him. Now he's tasked with putting the pieces together and take the Heels back to the promised land.

At 54, the Queens, New York native who spent over a decade in the league as an assistant before advancing to become a head coach knows timing is everything. Getting fired by the Denver Nuggets after winning a championship wasn't ideal, but the rejection put him on a path to work as an analyst for ESPN—an opportunity not many coaches get right off the bat after hitting the unemployment line. However, Malone wouldn't have tapped in with Kenny Smith during his brief hiatus from coaching and likely wouldn't be at UNC.