One of the most surprising revelations was recently made by the Denver Nuggets. With three games left in their schedule, the Nuggets fired head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth. Shams Charania of ESPN confirmed the report on Tuesday. An NBA commentator criticized Russell Westbrook for the decision that led to the dismissal of two important employees.
Westbrook has served as the team’s sparkplug off the bench. The veteran guard has played 72 games, mostly as the immediate contributor off the bench. Whenever there’s a man down from the starting lineup, the 2017 MVP gets called up to take over. However, this has caused to be a point of emphasis on why Nick Wright thinks he’s the one to blame.
On the latest episode of Fox Sports 1’s show, “First Things First,” Wright and his crew talked about the biggest update in the NBA, the firing of Malone. During the segment, however, the longtime analyst took a slight dig at Westbrook for being the one responsible for the Nuggets’ decision.
“I do think that comeuppance sometimes happens,” Wright said. “And I do think that some of us that warned folks that said, ‘Where Russ goes, gues usually lose their jobs.'”
“Where Russ goes, guys usually lose their jobs.”
– @getnickwright on Russell Westbrook
(🎥 @FTFonFS1 / h/t @jokicgoatic15 )
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) April 9, 2025
Westbrook has not addressed the comments made about him and his potential “involvement” in the Denver Nuggets’ decision.
Former Denver Nuggets executive and head coach reportedly couldn’t see eye-to-eye
Following the events in Denver, The Athletic’s Tony Jones, Sam Amick and Zach Powell wrote an article about the situation. In the piece they published on Tuesday, Booth was reportedly “dismayed” at Malone for giving more playing time to Westbrook and preferred to have Jalen Pickett have more exposure.
“Malone and Booth had been at odds over everything from roster construction to the way players were used, creating tension that started to bleed into the rest of the organization. Booth wanted Malone to use younger players that he drafted and wanted Malone to stray away from using veterans for so many minutes,” the trio wrote.
“Jalen Pickett is a good example of this, according to league sources. Booth was dismayed that Malone went with Russell Westbrook over Pickett down the stretch of multiple games last week. On a macro level, Booth and Malone disagreed on several things.”
Calvin Booth was reportedly ‘dismayed’ that Michael Malone continued to play Russell Westbrook over Jalen Pickett, per @TheAthletic
“Booth wanted Malone to use younger players that he drafted and wanted Malone to stray away from using veterans for so many minutes. Jalen Pickett… pic.twitter.com/zq1uJYJk4H
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) April 8, 2025
Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports also wrote about the conflict between Booth and Malone on X, formerly Twitter. O’Connor claims that the two were unable to agree.
ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk also posted on the social media platform, saying that the Nuggets were planning to let either one or both of them go over the summer. This was mainly because of the “cold war” between the head coach and general manager.
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Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen on Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
