Michael Malone coached Nikola Jokić to a championship just a few years ago. He’s now on ESPN. Oh, how times change. But in this era of player empowerment, it’d be silly to think Jokić didn’t at least play some part in Malone’s dismissal.

David Adelman was thrown into the interim head coaching role for the Denver Nuggets with just three games remaining in the regular season, but he reportedly showed enough in replacement of Michael Malone to land the full-time job.

The former Nuggets head coach raised some eyebrows with comments he made Tuesday night during his debut as an ESPN analyst.

Malone joined ESPN's broadcast crew covering the NBA's conference finals action this postseason. That'd be awesome for him if he weren't hoping to be still coaching at this point. The Nuggets unceremoniously fired Malone with just three games left in the regular season before Denver headed into the playoffs.

Michael Malone isn't the Denver Nuggets coach anymore, but he's still going to make an appearance at the Western Conference finals. Malone is joining the ESPN broadcasting team for the series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Minnesota Timberwolves,

David Adelman took over the Denver Nuggets with just a few regular season games remaining, as long-time head coach Michael Malone was sacked, alongside general manager Calvin Boothe. Despite heading into the playoffs as the No.