Paul Klee: How Brendan Malone shaped his son, Michael Malone, into a Denver Nuggets NBA champion

Jun. 14—Michael Malone was almost a cop, his dad says.

"One phone call changed his life," Brendan Malone said Wednesday from his home in New York.

Life works that way, doesn't it? One phone call. One 41st draft pick. One Nuggets victory lap through downtown Denver on Thursday.

Instead of changing the Michigan State Police, Michael Malone changed Nuggets history.

"Every game I was on pins and needles. We were so nervous," the first Coach Malone told me after the Nuggets finished the Miami Heat 4-1 in the NBA Finals to clinch Denver's first title.

"I watched every game this season. Never missed a one. I saw their progress, saw guys mature, ups and downs. What they accomplished... I'm very proud of Michael. He had second-guessers. But he's a good coach."

For the Nuggets faithful attending a victory parade 56 years in the making, take special note of the 5-foot-11 point guard from Queens, N.Y. He goes by Coach Malone. Dad does, too.

"I am a coach's son," Michael Malone told me in Los Angeles after sweeping the Lakers to reach Denver's first NBA Finals.

The father is one of the game's best coaches.

The son coached Denver's best team.

Brendan Malone coached Fordham, Yale, Syracuse (with Jim Boeheim), Rhode Island (and recruited a Sweet 16 roster), the Knicks (with Jeff Van Gundy, who called the Nuggets' Finals on ABC), Pistons (with whom he invented the "Jordan Rules"), Raptors, Pacers, Cavs and Magic. Michael grew up around "some of the greatest players to ever play in the NBA."

Now he coaches the greatest player in the NBA — Nikola Jokic, the 41st pick.

"I am a blessed man," Michael said.

Dad's coaching career began in the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) in New York City in the 1960s and 70s.

"Michael was just a young baby at the time," Brendan said.

Father Brady approached Brendan with an offer he couldn't refuse: coach the junior varsity team. He won the JV city championship at Power Memorial Academy, alma mater of the great Lew Alcindor. Brendan was elevated to varsity coach and he won two more city championships.

"That's when I got the bug," Brendan says.

Michael Malone, 51, is most proud of the Nuggets because they "play the right way."

"Check your ego at the door" is Rule No. 1. Then Jokic, Jamal Murray and the rest check into the game.

At the final buzzer of Game 5, Brendan Malone's phone blew up, too. Coaches called, like Tom Thibodeau. Players called, like Tobias Harris. His ex-players called, like Patrick Ewing.

"They all said the same thing: they won because they play the right way," Brendan said.

Like father, like son.

As the party raged around him Monday night at Ball Arena, Malone's first phone call went to his parents. He also thanked his three sisters, two brothers, wife Jocelyn and their two kids.

"They're in my heart," he said. "I love them."

It was a serious trek to get here from there.

Fresh out of Loyola (Md.) with a History degree, Michael Malone needed a job. His dream was to go into law enforcement with an eye on the secret service. His father encouraged that route.

"I actually discouraged him from coaching," Brendan Malone says. "Too much being away."

The Michigan State Patrol was hiring.

"I don't know if he's told you this, but he was always doing all kinds of jobs," said Brendan Malone, who has not yet escaped the coaching bug. "He was cleaning office buildings at night."

There were two British soccer players who lived on their block in a New York City borough.

"He connected with the soccer guys, and that's how they all made their money," Brendan says.

There was even a stint that had Michael Malone selling sneakers out of a shoes outlet.

From gym to gym, Michael was Brendan's shadow. Son traveled with Dad to coaching clinics and camps in Maine, to Pittsburgh when Dad coached the Dapper Dans, to Louisville "for some all-star thing," Brendan says. Dad is Michael's greatest influence in coaching and life.

Michael Malone's first break arrived with a phone call from Pete Gillen, a former Providence and Virginia coach. It kept him out of the state patrol and led to an assistantship at Oakland (Mich.), where he was responsible for game film exchange and working with the guards. A character, longtime Oakland coach Greg Kampe likes to remind everyone, "I hired him first."

Later, as a Providence assistant, Michael Malone was charged with escorting the freshmen from the dorms to class, ensuring they would not play hooky and remain eligible to play.

I couldn't wait to talk with Brendan Malone, who reads basketball teams like books, as if he knows the ending. Why did I long believe these were the Nuggets to break the title curse?

Coach Malone — the first one. He called it.

The second one made it happen.

"He's a good coach," Brendan says of Michael. "He pays attention to detail. He has a tremendous rapport with his two best players, which I think is essential. He's grown as a coach. He's still going to get better. And that's the challenge for (the Nuggets), getting better."

Brendan Malone helped the Detroit Pistons' "Bad Boys" to back-to-back NBA titles in 1989-90.

Likewise, it wasn't one hour after the Nuggets' first title that Michael Malone had a second in mind.

"We're not satisfied with one," Michael said.

Hmmm. Wonder where he got that from.

As the Nuggets embark on a repeat bid, Michael will consult his dad's own experience in Detroit.

Brendan Malone told me: "When you win one, you want another one, then another one. When you go this far into the season there's not much turnaround time for next season. You must be ready to come back and compete at a high level. Another thing is the roster. If you stay the same you're not getting better. And when you're the champs you will get everyone's best shot."

The son needs another ring to equal his father.

Now the Malones' long, winding road through basketball will continue in a Denver parade.