Malone, Mahlalela and other candidates for Canada Basketball's open coaching positions

CBC

18-04-2025

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About eight months ago, Canada went to the Paris Olympics with the idea of bringing home three basketball medals.
It ended up with none.
That sort of failure, in a professional sports setting, may lead to widespread changes on the roster. Of course, that's mostly impossible in international tournaments — you can tinker, and you can recruit dual citizens (Hakeem Olajuwon's two sons appear to be on the Canada track), but your core is your core.
Instead, in the aftermath of the Olympics, Canada Basketball found itself needing new head coaches on both the men's and women's senior teams, as well as a general manager for the latter.
Jordi Fernandez left the men's team in February, citing his job with the Brooklyn Nets, while Victor LaPena and Canada Basketball mutually parted ways in October.
The third team in Paris — the women's 3x3 squad — has already begun experimenting with new players, but by nature faces a different road with different infrastructure to the podium at Los Angeles 2028.
On the five-on-five front, earlier in April, Canada removed the interim label from Steve Baur, tapping the longtime assistant coach as the team's new GM.
Now, CEO Mike Bartlett, Baur and men's GM Rowan Barrett can focus on finding new bench bosses.
Bartlett told CBC Sports in March that he hopes to have those positions filled by the summer, when each team will participate in the FIBA AmeriCup — the women in Chile in July, followed by the men in Nicaragua in August.
With choices coming soon, here are some candidates to fill both positions:
Mike Malone, men
Here's a name that only started to become a possibility earlier in April, when he was shockingly fired as head coach of the Denver Nuggets despite leading the team to an NBA championship less than two years ago.
What makes Malone intriguing isn't just his NBA success, but his deep ties to Canada. Malone's father, Brendan Malone, coached the Toronto Raptors during the 1995-96 season. In 2007, Mike Malone was hired as a Team Canada assistant under head coach Leo Rautins.
Perhaps most importantly, Malone was the only NBA head coach Jamal Murray ever knew until his firing. Go back to Paris, and Murray, coming in off an injury, represents the biggest what-if — as in, what if Murray had performed for Canada like he did with Nuggets? Instead, he did not manage 10 points in any game and shot a woeful 29 per cent from the field. A better showing from Murray, and Canada may have been able to eke past France in the quarterfinals.
The downside of hiring the 53-year-old Malone now, three years ahead of Los Angeles, is that he could get another NBA head coaching position between now and then. If that's the case, like Fernandez before him, he may ultimately decide he does not have the bandwidth for both jobs.
Jama Mahlalela, men
Mahlalela has spent two stints as assistant with the Raptors, first under Dwane Casey and Nick Nurse before returning to join Darko Rajakovic's staff. In between, he spent three seasons with Steve Kerr's Golden State Warriors, winning a title there.
In the NBA, he's become known as a player development guru, something that could be seen in his first go with the Raptors — think Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet and Norm Powell — and again with the early successes of Jamal Shead, Jonathan Mogbo and others.
Mahlalela, a dual Canadian-Swazi citizen, graduated from the University of British Columbia in 2004 after playing basketball for the Thunderbirds, leading the team to a regional title in 2003.
Bartlett stopped short of promising a Canadian coach for Team Canada, instead deferring to winning, but Mahlalela could provide the best of both worlds.
Gordie Herbert, men
Then again, Herbert, of Penticton, B.C., might check the most boxes of any candidate.
The most internationally accomplished option, Herbert left Team Canada after years as an assistant in 2021 to become Germany's head coach and won a Eurobasket bronze medal in 2022 before a breakthrough World Cup gold one year later.
After the Olympics, where Germany placed lost the bronze-medal game to Serbia, Herbert left to become head coach of Bayern Munich, guiding the team to a 19-15 record.
Herbert, 66, played for Team Canada at the 1984 Olympics and 1986 world championship and served as the interim head coach before Nick Nurse took over in 2019.
Nathaniel Mitchell, men
The Toronto native most recently served as Canada's head coach for AmeriCup qualifying in November, where he dropped both games with a team composed mostly of CEBL players.
An experienced NBA assistant, Mitchell is now the head coach of a team in the Chinese Basketball Association. He's appeared on Team Canada benches since 2016, meaning he has experience with some of the key players.
But his recent losses, combined with his exit from the NBA sphere, may leave him on the outside of the search, fairly or not.
Carly Clarke, women
Clarke has been head coach of the Toronto Metropolitan University women's team since 2012, winning five nationals championships in that time. She's also been with Canada Basketball for 14 years, half of those as an assistant under both Lisa Thomaidis and LaPena.
The Halifax native would represent a Canadian coaching success story, but also may raise questions about real change after the women's team has failed to play past the quarterfinals in four straight Games.
Noelle Quinn, women
Quinn, who has served as head coach the WNBA's Seattle Storm since 2020, joined the Canadian bench alongside LaPena in 2022.
When she was first brought in, it was as someone who could relate to players as a former player herself. Her WNBA involvement also helps in terms of player recruitment and continuity — the latter a particular problem for Canada with its national-team players spread across the world.
Natalie Achonwa, women
OK, this may be a longshot. But Achonwa has long shown an affinity for coaching and just completed her first season as an assistant at the University of Michigan, where emerging Canadian star Syla Swords plays.
Achonwa is, of course, familiar with the team, having just retired after the Paris Olympics. Then again, her lack of experience may mean she'd be a better choice four years from now.