Nuggets coach Michael Malone remembers father on the eve of raising the championship banner

DENVER (AP) — Michael Malone will be staring up when the Denver Nuggets raise their championship banner Tuesday night before the season opener.

He'll be looking past the banner, though, in remembrance of his late father, who also happened to be his friend, mentor and biggest supporter.

Brendan Malone, the longtime coach and driving force behind the Detroit Pistons “Bad Boys” defenses in the late 1980s and early ’90s, died nearly two weeks ago. He was 81.

“I’m always thinking about him,” Michael Malone, the coach of the Nuggets, said after the team went through practice Monday on the eve of hosting LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers. “He’s with me every step of the way. And so tomorrow night, when we celebrate and raise that banner, it’s going to be a great moment for our fans, first and foremost, and for the franchise. But I know my father will be here. He bought tickets on StubHub. He’ll be here.”

Malone, who's beginning his ninth season with Denver, always received a text or call from his dad following every game. For the first time that he can recall, there were no words of wisdom awaiting him after the preseason finale in Los Angeles against the Clippers last week.

“And that hit me," Malone said. “That was hard.”

His father spent three decades as an assistant or head coach in the NBA, working for the New York Knicks, Indiana Pacers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic, Toronto Raptors and the Pistons.

It was operating alongside Chuck Daly with the Pistons from 1988-95 that Brendan Malone helped invent “The Jordan Rules,” a set of defensive principles designed to curtail Michael Jordan’s scoring prowess. It led to a pair of NBA titles for Detroit in 1989 and ’90.

On Tuesday, Michael Malone will receive a championship ring of his own. Like his father, he may rarely wear the ring.

“He always thought those rings were in the safety-deposit box,” said Malone, whose team went 16-4 in the playoffs on the way to franchise's first NBA crown, including a sweep of the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. “But my mother put them in his underwear drawer. So that’s probably where mine will be as well."

Once the banner is raised and the rings are handed out, it’s all about the quest to repeat as NBA champions. Really, though, Malone has long ago stopped looking back, only forward.

Just the way his dad would have instructed.

“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for everything that he had done for me," Malone said. "He knows I love him. He’ll be here tomorrow night.”

NBA season set to begin with ring night in Denver, and a slew of challengers for title

Damian Lillard went to Milwaukee, Bradley Beal went to Phoenix, Jrue Holiday ended up in Boston and Chris Paul ended up with Golden State. Victor Wembanyama arrived in San Antonio, Nick Nurse took over in Philadelphia and LeBron James is now the oldest player in the league.

As always, the NBA is opening a new season with new looks.

The Denver Nuggets are hoping this season doesn’t end with another new champion.

The NBA’s 78th season starts Tuesday, with a ring ceremony in Denver — the traditional celebration of the reigning champions — highlighting the opening-night celebration. The Nuggets beat Miami last June to become the league’s fifth different champion in the last five years, a run of parity the likes of which the league hasn’t seen in more than 40 years.

“We’ve gone from being a team that’s hunting the teams in front of us to now we’re going to be the hunted,” Denver coach Michael Malone said. “And hopefully our guys understand the responsibility that comes with being a defending champion. There can be no off nights, because we’re getting everybody’s best 82 times this year.”

The last five winners: Toronto, the Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee, Golden State and Denver. The last time there was a five-season stretch with no duplicate champion was 1977 through 1981, and it was a very different NBA back then.

For context on what the league was like in those five years: Seattle had a team, Washington was the Bullets, the 3-point line didn’t exist when that run started, the league had 22 or 23 teams instead of its current 30, the Nets played in New Jersey, the Jazz were wrapping up their New Orleans run, the Kings played in Kansas City, the Clippers played in San Diego and four players were the top earners at exactly $1 million a year each.

During this regular season, the NBA has at least 56 players who’ll make $1 million a week.

“There’s still the elite teams: Denver, Milwaukee, Boston,” Charlotte coach Steve Clifford said. “But there’s a lot of really, really good teams that if they evolve the right way, they can get there too.”

The offseason included several major transactions. Lillard’s quest to get traded to Miami wound up with him getting traded to Milwaukee and instantly forming a championship-caliber duo with Giannis Antetokounmpo. Beal got traded to the Suns, forming the newest Big 3 alongside Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. The Lillard and Beal moves led to others — Holiday eventually joining Boston, Paul eventually joining Golden State.

Everybody is chasing the ring. Which means, for now, everybody is chasing the Nuggets.

“I just know when you have a team that can be one of those teams that’s going to compete for a title,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. “And we have one of those teams.”

For the first time, there are two titles for teams to go after this season.

The In-Season Tournament — something Commissioner Adam Silver wanted for years — is now a reality. It starts on Nov. 3 with group play, and ends with a Final Four in Las Vegas on Dec. 7 and 9. The winner gets the NBA Cup and around $18 million in prize money will be awarded, with $500,000 going to each player on the winning team.

“Anything that’s going to create higher quality basketball, better competition, more intensity and more fan engagement is a great growth opportunity for us,” said Evan Wasch, the NBA’s executive vice president of basketball strategy.

CJ McCollum, the president of the National Basketball Players Association, knows there are skeptics. He points out that there also were skeptics when the NBA added the play-in tournament – which has turned out to be a massive success and ratings bonanza.

“It makes November and December not so gloomy,” McCollum said of the in-season event. “And it gives people a chance to go to Vegas and compete at a high level on television for a chance to make more money. So, you have all these incentives in place, along with the fact that the season is so long, you have to figure out ways to continue to make it entertaining. This is a way to accomplish that.”

So, there are more things to win.

There’s also, the NBA hopes, more reasons for players to play.

The league has been stressing to teams in recent weeks that, unless a player is injured or absolutely cannot play, they want them on the floor for games. Players now have to appear in a certain number of games — typically 65 — to be eligible for postseason awards, and the league even wants a more competitive All-Star Game after some relatively lackluster ones in recent years.

“I think Adam Silver is trying to change the mentality and get players to play,” Heat President Pat Riley said. “Our guys, last year, we led the league in games missed. We had some long-term injuries. But it’s hard when guys can’t play. And so, I’m glad that that that Adam Silver and the NBA, along with the Players Association, are trying to address this thing.”

Boston and Milwaukee enter the season as co-favorites for the NBA title, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, which lists Denver’s Nikola Jokic — who won MVP in 2021 and 2022 — as the favorite for that award this year. Reigning MVP Joel Embiid has a new coach in Nurse with the 76ers, and an unhappy teammate in James Harden, whose future in Philadelphia is most unclear. And James, who turns 39 in December, is convinced the Lakers can make another title run.

There are many questions heading into the season and endless possibilities with so many talented teams.

But Nuggets guard Jamal Murray is clear about this: “If we can get another championship, I think we’ll be on the right track.”