Report: Michael Malone had a very predictable reaction to firing

Michael Malone found himself in a situation all coaches expect to be in this week: being told that he was fired.

Michael Malone also found himself in a situation that few coaches ever expect to experience: being told that he was fired as his team was at the cusp of the postseason. It was the latest coaching change in NBA history for a team headed for the playoffs.

One of the most shocking organizational housecleanings in North American major professional sports history claimed the only head coach to bring the Denver Nuggets a Larry O’Brien Trophy earlier this week, along with general manager Calvin Booth.

When Malone first became the Nuggets’ coach, he inherited a team backsliding into irrelevance. He helped rebuild the team, first returning it to contention, then scaling it to heights it had never experienced.

So, if he didn’t handle receiving the shocking news with magnanimity, that would be understandable.

According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, that was exactly the case.

WINDHORST: MICHAEL MALONE WAS “NOT CALM”

“By the way, it got out pretty quickly in the NBA that Michael Malone’s reaction was not calm,” Windhorst said during his Hoop Collective podcast this week.

“Shocker,” co-host Tim MacMahon chimed in.

“Not a surprise,” Windhorst continued. “I don’t blame him. Don’t blame him.”

The anecdote was thrown in as an aside to a larger discussion about the coaching change, organizational alignment and the impact on — and reaction of — Nikola Jokić.

Michael Malone was replaced by David Adelman. Under his interim stewardship, the Nuggets have won two-straight games heading into their regular-season finale against the Houston Rockets on Sunday afternoon.

The longtime coach could be fiery around officials and on the sideline when things got heated.

And at least according to one report, that happened when he learned of the end of his Nuggets tenure, too.