Brendan Malone, longtime NBA coach and father of Nuggets' Michael Malone, dies at 81

Brendan Malone, a longtime NBA coach and father of Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone, died on Tuesday. He was 81.

“It is with tremendous sadness that we share the passing of longtime NBA coach Brendan Malone, who holds a special place amongst the organization and will be a Denver Nugget forever,” the Nuggets said in a statement. “Coach Brendan Malone was a great man who left behind a great legacy in the world of basketball, but he will be remembered even more for the amazing husband, father, son and grandfather that he was and the profound impact he had on the friends, family and colleagues who were lucky enough to know him.

“Our thoughts are with the entire Malone family and all of Brendan’s loved ones who are feeling this loss today.”

Malone, born and raised in New York City, was a basketball lifer. He attended Iona and played in one game, and after graduation, he began coaching CYO basketball and then became a junior varsity coach at famed Power Memorial Academy and was the varsity coach from 1970-1976.

He spent most of career as a trusted assistant coach at Fordham, Yale, Syracuse and moved to the NBA as an assistant coach for New York, Detroit, Indiana, Cleveland and Orlando. He was also the head coach at Rhode Island for two seasons and an NBA head coach for Toronto and Cleveland for 100 games.

In July, shortly after his son Michael won a title with the Nuggets, the National Basketball Coaches Association awarded the elder Malone the 2023 Tex Winter Assistant Coach Lifetime Impact Award.

“Brendan Malone has been a name synonymous with NBA success for many decades,” NBCA president and Indiana Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said in a statement when Malone was honored. “He's helped develop players and young coaches and been a multiple NBA champion on Chuck Daly's Detroit coaching staff in 1989 and 1990. Congrats to Coach Malone on this prestigious recognition.”

Michael Malone said during the Finals that his dad tried to persuade him from getting into coaching. “He had lived it with six kids, and he understood the pitfalls of that job," Malone said, speaking of job security, long hours, road trips, time away from family. "I was just too dumb and stubborn to listen to him."

Malone couldn’t resist the call of the job. "There's something to be said growing up the son of a coach, being around the game at every level," he said.

As an assistant, Brendan Malone brought his experience to some of the best basketball coaches in the world: Hubie Brown, Rick Pitino, Chuck Daly and Jim Boeheim.

He gained acclaim working with players and coaches and enjoyed a successful run as an assistant for Daly’ Pistons in the late 1980s and early 1990s, helping the Pistons to consecutive titles in 1989 and 1990.

With the Pistons, Malone helped institute The Jordan Rules, a set of defensive principles designed to limit Michael Jordan’s ability to dominate offensively. It wasn’t an easy task and eventually Jordan found a way to beat the Pistons in the playoffs.

But the idea was trifold: Don’t let Jordan drive baseline. Force him left from the top of the key. Trap him from the top if he got the ball in the low post. And of course, this Pistons Bad Boys mantra: If he gets to the paint, don’t let him have an easy basket. During that era, Detroit eliminated Chicago and the Bulls from the playoffs in 1988, 1989 and 1990, the final two times in the Eastern Conference finals.

Malone once spent time as an NBA scout but told the Orlando Sentinel, “When I was out of coaching, I missed being on the practice floor, I missed being on the bench, I missed the meetings. When you’re in the game a long time, it’s part of your life, in your fabric."