NBA ALL-STAR MEDIA DAY

February 18, 2023

Michael Malone

Media Day Press Conference

MICHAEL MALONE: I would love to see Nikola in the dunk contest. I don't know if any 50s will be given out, but I think he'd find a way to make it pretty creative.

Q. If there's any coach you could coach against anywhere, from any era, who would it be?

MICHAEL MALONE: Oh, great question. Jerry Sloan. I have a lot of respect for Jerry Sloan's body of work, consistency, how long he was in Salt Lake City. Incredibly enough, I don't believe he ever won Coach of the Year, which to me is ludicrous. Jerry Sloan, class act, and a hell of a coach that did it at a high level for a really long time.

I had a chance to meet him a few times and was just really impressed with not just the coach but also the man. So that would be -- him or Pat Riley.

Q. When I say John Wooden, what do you think about?

MICHAEL MALONE: See, I'm thinking NBA, and obviously John Wooden is arguably the greatest coach of all time and had a lot of success. You can't argue with that. Interesting note, and I didn't know until recently that both Joe Mazzulla and I attended the same high school at much different periods of time. While my father was the head coach at the University of Rhode Island, I attended Bishop Hendricken in high school, and Joe went on to star there many years later. Small world.

Q. Are there any rule changes you would like to see to improve the competitive balance between offense and defense?

MICHAEL MALONE: All the rules that are put in place favor the offense, and that's why it's getting harder and harder to defend in the NBA. If you look at the scores and the points per game and the field goal percentages, they're all career highs in NBA history because the NBA, they want to keep the fans invested. They want to make it an exciting game, so you understand that.

But if you're a defensive-minded coach, it's really hard to get defense into a game when every rule is advantage to the offensive player.

But we have a great game. We're never satisfied. Adam Silver, the commissioner, does an amazing job of always looking to see how can we make this great game even better. That's all you want from a commissioner.

Q. (No microphone.)

MICHAEL MALONE: I can't say there are other sports I look at and try to take things from that sport and use in our sport, but always open to anything that can give us a competitive advantage.

Q. (No microphone.)

MICHAEL MALONE: No, I don't think that'll ever change. The NBA is a business, and the NBA, keeping viewership, keeping fans is really important, and I get that, and everybody that works in the league gets that.

The rules are in place because they want high-scoring games. They want to showcase the best players in the world and let their talents be on full display. I think it's going to stay the same, and we as coaches, we as players have to adjust to the rules.

Q. (No microphone).

MICHAEL MALONE: Yeah, you've got to find ways to get creative. Like the league -- one thing about the NBA and the game itself, the game is always changing. When I got in the league 23 years ago to now, it's changed, and 10 years from now it's going to change again. You want to be ahead of that curve. You want to be the team reacting to it or fighting that.

Yeah, it's fun. You've just got to make sure you're constantly challenging yourself.

Q. Are you missing Jordi Fernandez?

MICHAEL MALONE: Yeah, Jordi was a big part of our staff. I miss him, friend, coworker. We were together in Cleveland years ago. I miss his wife, Kelsey, and their kids, great family. It was an opportunity for him to go to Sacramento and be Mike Brown's lead assistant, and it was an opportunity he couldn't pass up.

Happy for Jordi and happy for the success that they're having.

Q. If we showed a photo of you to the fans, what percent do you think would know you?

MICHAEL MALONE: I would say 2.