The NBA world was shocked when the Denver Nuggets fired head coach Michael Malone, and minutes later announced that Calvin Booth would be right along with him. With just a few games remaining in the regular season, it didn't seem like the best thing to fire your coach at this specific time, especially with the Nuggets actually being one of the top teams in the Western Conference.

Unfortunately, this had been brewing for some time, and it looks like everybody in the organization felt some tension between Malone and Booth, according to ESPN.

“Coaches, front office staffers and support staff felt compelled to choose sides, multiple team sources said,” ESPN wrote. “Instead of focusing on how to get the most out of a team with a three-time MVP having arguably his best season as a professional, energy was being spent on determining which side people were on — and whether they could be trusted.”

It had gotten to a point where everybody in the organization felt miserable, which is what a source said.

“That's what Josh felt. It's a bad vibe. You can't operate like that. He felt that if he removed those two people, everybody could just focus on doing their job. Change needed to happen,” the source said to ESPN.

Not only was their feud affecting the people at the top of the organization, but it was affecting things on the court as well.

Nuggets feud was affecting things on the court

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Malone and Booth had different philosophies when it came to building the team. With Nikola Jokic playing some of his best basketball over the past few seasons and the Nuggets winning a championship, it made sense to put the right talent around the center to continue to compete.

For Booth, he wanted to draft younger players such as Christian Braun, Peyton Watson, Julian Strawther, Zeke Nnaji, and Jalen Pickett. Malone had a different thought and wanted the Nuggets to keep the veterans that helped the Nuggets win their championship, which were Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Bruce Brown, and Jeff Green.

“They just saw the world completely differently,” a team source said to ESPN.

On the court, players thought that their playing time was being affected because of the tension between Malone and Booth. At some point, the top players on the team began tuning out Malone.

It'll be interesting how the rest of the season pans out for the Nuggets with such a huge change, but honestly, it sounds like everyone may feel relieved after the move.