When the Denver Nuggets fired head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth, it left the NBA world perplexed.
The two had just won a championship together two years prior, making the move feel hasty, and at worst, tons of background information that wasn’t known by the public led to both of their firings.
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As time has gone on, more and more information has been released, more specifically on Malone, that has given insight as to why the move was made.
Most recently, on the May 17 podcast episode of “The Ringer NBA Show”, The Athletic’s Sam Amick discussed more details on the situation.
“…one of the things that ended up tripping Malone up at the end was that he was giving the star treatment to Joker, to Jamal, and to Russ. And that locker room was like ‘Wait a minute. Two of these things are not like the other.’ And that caused issues.”
The quote can be interpreted in multiple ways, but either way, it shows the locker room was out on Malone by the time he was fired. If the locker room doesn’t back their head coach, it is hard to fathom keeping that head coach around.
The most likely meaning of the quote is that the players felt like Westbrook didn’t deserve star treatment, especially since he was coming off the bench. Murray and Jokic are the two stars who have been on the team for a while and won the championship together with the Nuggets.
Just like during his time with the Lakers, Westbrook’s role seemingly caused the organization problems.
He first was asked to come off the bench during his time with the Lakers, and ever since, there has been a lot of discussion surrounding Westbrook’s value to his given team.
Not too long ago, he was a superstar and perennial MVP candidate, but given his unpredictable nature and inconsistent play, as he has gotten older, that level has fallen significantly.
That means the fact that he is still receiving star treatment is a bit of a head-scratcher.
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The quote could also be interpreted as the only player worth the star treatment is Jokic, but that would also be a bit of a head-scratcher given Murray’s clear value to the team and long tenure with the franchise.
While at the time of the firing, everyone was confused, especially given the timing of being right before the start of the playoffs, as more information is released, the firing of Michael Malone makes more and more sense.
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