NBA coaches across the country have reacted with disappointment to the news that Michael Malone was fired by the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday.

Malone had been the coach with the Nuggets since 2015 after leaving the Sacramento Kings the previous year, and led them to an NBA championship in 2023.

The 53-year-old has also twice been head coach in the All-Star Game in 2019 and 2023, but will not be the man to lead the Nuggets through the 2025 playoffs after a four-game losing streak saw them drop to fifth in the West.

“Just disappointment,” New York coach Tom Thibodeau said of the news. “It’s the unfortunate part of the business. I’ve known Michael for decades. Michael just did a phenomenal job there.”

Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla, meanwhile, won the NBA championship with Boston in 2024 – just one year after Malone and the Nuggets – and suggested that the life cycle of an NBA coach is uncertain.

“I wake up every day saying this could be my last day. You have to have that type of perspective because it gives you gratitude and it keeps you hungry. You have to have a healthy balance if you want this for as long as you can.

"At the same time, you’re very much replaceable because that’s just how it works. Every day I remind myself of my own mortality.”

Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle also doubles as the president of the National Basketball Coaches Association and said that the situation was a difficult one to understand.

Coach, thank you for your dedication to the Denver Nuggets throughout the years.

Your impact on this team and city will not be forgotten. pic.twitter.com/TKzu5tRDdS

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) April 8, 2025

“It’s kind of numbing to be honest. But teams have the ability to do what they want and coaches have contracts. But these were head-scratchers," he said.

Josh Kroenke is the vice chairman of Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, who own the Nuggets, and said that the decision was not made in response to one thing in isolation.

"There were certain trends that were very worrisome to me at different points in time," Kroenke told Altitude TV, as reported by ESPN.

"But they would get masked by a few wins here and there and in the world of professional sports, when winning and losing is your currency, winning can mask a lot of things.

"I think there's more to [the team] than has been accomplished so far. How much more is in that group? I don't think that I know the answer to that, I don't think anyone knows the answer to that.

But I think I have a belief that there's more in that group that can be accomplished and I look forward to seeing what they can do.

"There is no amount of gratitude that we can properly convey to his contributions since he joined our franchise in 2015. It is with our utmost respect that we would like to thank Coach Malone for the most successful decade in Nuggets history."