SALT LAKE CITY – Nuggets head coach Michael Malone emerged from behind a black curtain long after Nikola Jokic had begun indulging questions from a throng of eager media members.
As Malone settled into the dais to Jokic’s right, he looked at several local media members and asked them where their loyalties were: with the fourth-longest tenured head coach in the NBA or with the two-time MVP.
No one budged.
It’s largely because of Jokic, who’s amid another record-setting season, that he and Malone were back on the All-Star stage together for the first time since 2019.