Warriors coach Steve Kerr reacts to Malone’s sudden firing

PHOENIX – Warriors coach Steve Kerr did not mince words before Tuesday’s game in Phoenix when asked for his reaction to the Nuggets’ sudden firing of longtime head coach Mike Malone.

Malone became the second coach of a Western Conference team bound for the playoffs, the other being Memphis’ former coach Taylor Jenkins, to be fired in the last two weeks. 

“Shocked, like everyone,” Kerr said. “Mike has obviously been a great, great coach. Champion, fantastic record. Like with Taylor, you don’t expect anything like this, this late in the season.”

Malone was an assistant on Mark Jackson’s Warriors staff from 2011-13. 

The Nuggets hired Malone in 2015, and he coached Denver to the 2023 NBA championship, the first in franchise history. 

Denver entered Tuesday 47-32 and seeded fourth, but they cut ties with both Malone and general manager Calvin Booth with the team mired in a four-game losing streak. One of those losses came to Golden State on Friday, a game where Steph Curry dropped 36 points. 

“Organizations have to do their own business, and we aren’t privy to any of that, so I have no idea what was happening so I can’t comment on anything other than wishing Mike well,” Kerr said. “He’s done an amazing job and it doesn’t seem right, but this is the business we’re in. We’re all going to suffer a similar fate at some point.”

Since Kerr took the Warriors job in 2014, six coaches have won NBA titles. Four of them have been fired, with Kerr and last year’s champion Joe Mazzulla of the Boston Celtics being the only survivors. 

Among that group is Mike Budenholzer, the current Suns coach who led the Bucks to the title in 2021 but was fired in 2023. 

“Shocking … this league is tough to win a championship in,” Budenholzer said before the game. “To have all the success he’s had, to build the program that he’s built, the individual success for their players and the organizational success, he’s just a great coach. The proof is in everything he’s done.”

Why are so many successful coaches being let go? Kerr, whose team is 46-32 and seeded sixth in the playoff race, had one hypothesis. 

“There’s so much money in the business now, and there’s pluses and minuses to that,” Kerr said. “We’re all making bigger salaries than we were five years ago, but we’re all much more vulnerable because I don’t think a lot of owners are that concerned with firing a guy and paying him off to go away.”