Ex-Nuggets coach Mike Malone hurt some feelings in the locker room, and Paul Pierce is blaming the players for being too sensitive and getting him fired.
“Players get they feelings hurt in this generation,” Pierce said on Fox Sports’ “Speak” on Tuesday. “‘Oh, I don’t like him. He talking bad to me.’ Man, get on the line. You’re making $30 million a year… He’s a great coach. He’s won a championship.”
Pierce likely isn’t talking about MVP candidate Nikola Jokic. Rather, he’s targeting the younger guys on the roster who have been forced into action in Denver.
Malone called out his players less than a month ago, and his “brutally honest” message wound up getting him fired.
“Each guy has got to look himself in the mirror and start coming to each respective game with the proper mindset and have some pride. I don’t think we played with any pride tonight,” Malone said after a March 21 loss to the Trail Blazers in which they gave up 128 points
When asked how he thinks the players will take that message, he said, “I don’t really care.”
“It’s not my job to evaluate how they take things. My job is to be honest and sometimes brutally honest… The guys that are full of s–t, won’t hear it. They’ll say, ‘Coach is tripping.’”
Malone added that no one will go back and watch their minutes because “no one watches film.”
Less than a month later, the Nuggets fired Malone and also general manager Calvin Booth, who reportedly had a poor relationship with Malone, according to Yahoo Sports’ Kevin O’Connor.
“Booth and Malone never liked each other, rarely spoke, and talked behind each other’s backs,” O’Connor wrote on X.
Rick Adelman has taken over for Malone as the team’s coach.