With the all-star game a little over two weeks away, the league announced last nigh that Denver’s Michael Malone would be coaching team LeBron this year. Earlier this week the league announced that Boston’s Joe Mazzulla would be the coach of team Giannis. Malone and the Nuggets have the best record in the Western Conference this season at 35-16 and that’s why he earned this honor to be a head coach in the all-star game.
This is the second time in Malone’s coaching career that he was chosen to be head coach in the all-star game. He lead team LeBron to a victory in 2019 his first-time around. The reason for earning this spot was very simple. Each Conference’s team with the best record before this Sunday would be chosen and that’s why Malone and Mazzulla got the honors.
The 72nd annual all-star game will be on Sunday 2/19 at 8:00pm on TNT.
Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone and his staff will coach Team LeBron in the 2023 NBA All-Star Game. pic.twitter.com/FFhLXAoxjZ
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) February 2, 2023
Team LeBron to be coached by Denver’s Michael Malone in the 2023 all-star game
With the Memphis Grizzlies loss to the Portland Trail Blazers last night, it ensured that the Nuggets would have the West’s best record by Sunday. That locked up Denver having the top spot and therefore Malone being the head coach f0r Team LeBron.
Malone has been head coach of the Denver Nuggets since the 2015-16 season and has taken the team to four consecutive playoff appearances since the 2018-19 season. They made the Western Conference Finals in 2019-20, but lost to the Lakers who went on to win the Finals.
In his eight seasons as their head coach he has a 349-257 record in the regular season and a 21-27 record in the playoffs. As of now, the only all-star selected from the Nuggets is Nikola Jokic, but the team could have another player or two selected to the reserves when the league announces that today.
The all-star’s game format involves a draft by the two team captains and that doesn’t ensure that Malone will be coaching his MVP front-runner.
