{"id":492283,"date":"2025-04-09T01:45:49","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T05:45:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/?post_type=news&#038;p=492283"},"modified":"2025-04-09T01:45:49","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T05:45:49","slug":"nuggets-fire-hc-michael-malone-and-gm-calvin-booth-days-before-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/news\/nuggets-fire-hc-michael-malone-and-gm-calvin-booth-days-before-playoffs\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuggets fire HC Michael Malone and GM Calvin Booth days before playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a jaw-dropping and nearly unprecedented move, the Denver Nuggets have fired head coach Michael Malone just three games before the end of the regular season \u2014 despite the team being playoff-bound and only a year from winning the 2023 NBA Championship.<\/p>\n<p>The Nuggets also announced that general manager Calvin Booth&#8217;s contract will not be renewed. Assistant coach David Adelman will take over head coaching duties for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">With Michael Malone being fired from Denver, FOUR of the last six NBA coaches to win the Finals are no longer with the team they won with \ud83d\ude32 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fp4f7V47gp\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/fp4f7V47gp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 ESPN (@espn) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/espn\/status\/1909678595808670029?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">April 8, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Josh Kroenke, vice chairman of Kroenke Sports &amp; Entertainment, called the decision \u201cnot made lightly\u201d and said it was done \u201conly with the intention of giving our group the best chance at competing for the 2025 NBA championship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Denver, currently 47-32 and locked in a fierce battle for home-court advantage in the West, is at the very least guaranteed a spot in the play-in tournament. The timing, however, is what makes the move truly historic. No NBA team has ever changed head coaches this late in the season while still in postseason contention.<\/p>\n<p>This comes amid a rare four-game skid, capped by a 125-120 loss to Indiana on Sunday. Malone \u2014 known for his accountability \u2014 shouldered the blame after the defeat:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow about me, as a head coach, not doing my job to the best of my ability,\u201d he said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t lost four in a row in a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the struggles, superstar Nikola Joki\u0107 has continued to put up MVP-caliber numbers, averaging 30 points, 12.8 rebounds, and 10.2 assists per game in another historic campaign.<\/p>\n<p>The dismissal of Malone \u2014 who led the Nuggets to seven straight playoff appearances and the franchise\u2019s first-ever NBA title \u2014 marks a stunning end to a hugely successful era in Denver. The ripple effects on the locker room, the fanbase, and even the broader Western Conference playoff picture are likely to be felt immediately.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a jaw-dropping and nearly unprecedented move, the Denver Nuggets have fired head coach Michael Malone just three games before the end of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":492284,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"tags":[16736,19721],"news_category":[16706,16715],"gn_keywords":[17859,19722],"acf":{"announce":"Assistant coach David Adelman will take over head coaching duties for the rest of the season","video":[]},"rank_math_focus_keyword":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_robots":"","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_facebook_title":"","rank_math_facebook_description":"","rank_math_facebook_image":"","rank_math_twitter_title":"","rank_math_twitter_description":"","rank_math_twitter_image":"","rank_math_snippet_shortcode":"","rank_math_primary_category":"","rankmath_seo":{"focus_keyword":"","description":"","title":"","canonical_url":"","robots":"","facebook":{"title":"","description":"","image":""},"twitter":{"title":"","description":"","image":""}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/492283"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492283"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/492283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":492285,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/492283\/revisions\/492285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492283"},{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=492283"},{"taxonomy":"gn_keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gn_keywords?post=492283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}