NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: LAKERS VS. NUGGETS

September 23, 2020

Michael Malone

Denver Nuggets

Practice Day

Q. Last night you were talking about your relationship with Jamal, how you have a relationship where you can tell him that you need him to be more consistent, candid conversations. How rare is that to have a player that wants to be coached like that, can take that feedback?

MICHAEL MALONE: I don't think it's that rare because I think that's what great players are all about. It's funny, when I go back to my five years as assistant coach in Cleveland, that was part of my relationship with LeBron. I was unafraid to coach him, to hold him accountable if he wasn't doing his job. The reason I think Chris Paul and I hit it off. Then as a head coach, I think of DeMarcus Cousins. How did Coach Malone get through to DeMarcus? Now Jamal Murray.

I think great players inherently want to be coached, held accountable. They want somebody to help them become the best players they can be, maximize all their talents and potential.

When you look at it, Jamal Murray, how he's played in these 17 Playoff games, for a guy that has never been an All-Star, understandably so, is really remarkable. For him to take advantage of this stage, kind of what Nikola did last year in his first experience in the postseason.

I don't think it's too rare, but I think it speaks to Jamal's desire to be not a good player, not an All-Star, but a superstar, to be the best player that he can be.

Q. I'm not sure if you've seen the news yet, but the charges came down for the Breonna Taylor case. Only one of the officers was charged, with endangering the neighbors. The other two, not at all. Do you have any thoughts on the actual charges so far?

MICHAEL MALONE: Yeah, actually a few thoughts.

We were breaking up our staff meeting, heading into our team meting, when the news was kind of breaking out of Louisville. I know that Jerami Grant on our team has probably been the one player that has spoken out publicly the most on Breonna Taylor's case. I know two of the officers were not charged. The one was charged, I think, for wanton endangerment. I believe that is what they label it as.

I saw something that I need clarification on, that the Attorney General made a mention that this was not a no-knock warrant, which I'd been led to believe all along that it was.

I just put myself in Breonna Taylor's boyfriend's shoes. I'm in my apartment, wherever I am living. Somebody breaks into my house at 2:00, 3:00 in the morning. I am going to feel like somebody should not be there.

It's tragic. I know there's a curfew in place. Wes Unseld's family is from there, has a lot of family down there.

When I think about the tragedy of those police officers getting off, it also makes me think a lot closer to home, Elijah McClain, his case in Aurora, Colorado, how we're still demanding justice for the police officers who were involved in the death of Elijah McClain. That is still not the case.

That's just been tragic. I know we've been using our platform down here to try to bring about education and a voice in a lot of players on our team, especially also spoken out on justice for Breonna Taylor. We have not gotten that justice. That's a shame. Hopefully that will change at some point.

Q. What is your role in taking care of these players, helping them, to educate and understand, also knowing they have to play a Playoff game tomorrow?

MICHAEL MALONE: It's delicate. It's definitely a delicate balance. We're not just basketball players. We're not just coaches. I know a lot of people want to pigeonhole us as that. I'm so proud of all of our players, all of our coaches and the NBA for being much bigger than that.

You can see the emotion, I think, after the game. What really struck a chord for me was Jamal put his shoes up there, with a picture of George Floyd, a picture of Breonna Taylor on his shoes. It has to sink in.

This is a great game for Jamal, a big one for the Denver Nuggets, but let's not lose sight on a much bigger picture that affects our society as a whole.

I asked Jerami if he wanted to say a few words to the team as the news was breaking out of Louisville. He chose not to, which I truly understood. I at least wanted to give him, before we got into basketball, the option to do so because I know it's something that he's been carrying in his heart throughout this process.

My role is just to continue to educate, as you mentioned, but also to listen, to learn and to let players, if they're willing to, share their emotions and their thoughts. Some players prefer to do that privately. Some are willing to step out there and put themselves out there. To each their own.

I know this is not the news that millions of people across this country were hoping for today.

Q. I listened to your interview today on Altitude Sports Radio with the Masters Midday.

MICHAEL MALONE: You're the one person that listened to it. I wasn't sure who listened (laughter). All right, thank you.

Q. You talked about your relationship with your parents, how in your mom's case in particular she mentioned how inspiring it is to watch this team given what she's personally going through. You talked about the Nuggets' story inspiring people all over the world right now. What does it mean to you to have that opportunity to coach these guys? What do you think it means to your players?

MICHAEL MALONE: Just to be a very small part of something special, you feel so blessed. To be around a group of players like we have. Talent is given. That is a given commodity in the NBA. Every NBA roster has talent.

I think what separates the teams that are still here from maybe some of the others is not talent, it's the intangibles. I think we've proven time and time again that we are a special group.

When you're a part of that, when you see it every day for 78 days in a bubble, even before we got here, I've seen that countless times, it's rewarding because not every coach gets to be around a group like this.

I also am smart enough to realize you have to appreciate and enjoy it because it's not always a given things are going to be like that. Things change quickly in the NBA for whatever reason.

When my mother shared that, she was going to the doctor, dealing with whatever she's dealing with. She said, You guys give me renewed energy and fight and toughness. I watched you guys play and how you play and how you coach, as a proud mother would say. It gives her a kind of new life battling what she's going through.

I think my mother's story, there's probably a lot of people out there who look at us and say, We're the SAT question: Which team doesn't belong? It is the Denver Nuggets. The Lakers, Boston. That is basketball royalty. It's the Miami Heat. They have championships. What does Denver have? We have a group that fights, represents a lot of people from all across this country.

Q. Not just last night but dating back to the second half of Game 2, what is your assessment of the defense you guys have played? What has stood out to you on that end?

MICHAEL MALONE: Well, I think after Game 1, the goal was to eliminate the easy baskets we were giving them. I thought our transition defense in Game 2 was terrific. We didn't rebound as well as we needed to.

Last night, we had a plus-19 rebound margin. I don't think that's been talked about enough. We limited the Lakers to four offensive rebounds for four points, which is unbelievable.

They got out in transition off of our turnovers, especially in the fourth quarter when they went on their 19-2 run. Our turnovers fueled their offense. But I think we've done a better job of guarding LeBron, AD, giving them different looks, making the floor crowded, then flying around and making plays behind that.

That's where it starts with us. We're a team that has to defend on a high level because that gives our offense life. That's the only chance we have.

Q. What was your sense of how the team felt after finding out the news about Breonna Taylor? I imagine as a coach it has to be a little bit of a difficult moment for you as well. Is there anything that you tried to say to them?

MICHAEL MALONE: No. I'll be honest. The timing of today's events and the news coming out of Louisville, I wouldn't even assume all of our players knew going into our meeting. The time that we started -- I only found out as we were finishing up our staff meeting, going through our notes, watching the game film. It was breaking from a couple of our assistant coaches. It was from our meeting right to the court.

I'm not sure all our players have really had a chance to internalize the news that came out today. Obviously, the fact that the officers that were involved in her death were not charged.

I think that's something that we'll continue to talk about and discuss over the next few days, next 24 to 48 hours. I try to talk to guys individually as much as possible as well in those one-on-one conversations, which are private, just to make sure guys are handling and coping with the news, understanding how they may want to react, what their conversations may be like.

It's something that we'll continue to discuss.