Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer has been elected the 2019 Coach of the Year by the National Basketball Coaches Association, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports.
The award is voted on by all 30 NBA head coaches and does not permit any coach to vote for himself. Per Wojnarowski, the Nets‘ Kenny Atkinson, Nuggets‘ Michael Malone, Pacers‘ Nate McMillan, Spurs‘ Gregg Popovich, and others were among those to receive votes.
This award, introduced in 2017, isn’t the NBA’s official Coach of the Year award, which is voted on by media members and is represented by the Red Auerbach Trophy. That award will be presented at the league’s awards show in June. The Coaches Association’s version of Coach of the Year is voted on by the NBA’s 30 head coaches.
In his first season at the helm in Milwaukee, Budenholzer led the team to an NBA-best 60-win regular season.
Budenholzer, 49, spent five seasons as the Hawks’ head coach, leading the team to a 60-win season in 2014/15. Atlanta’s strong regular season earned Budenholzer the Red Auerbach Trophy as the NBA’s Coach of the Year in 2015.
After a 24-win season in Atlanta last season, Budenholzer and the Hawks parted ways, paving the road for him to join the Bucks.
im a bit surprised as NYK fizdale was simply the best coach this past year…he was able to fool the owner (who himself is the worst in any professional sport), GM, Assistant GM, the fans, media and all of the NBA in his gimmick of all talk and no substance. he completed misused the scraps of players we called a team, alientated our best player before trading him, scared away any potential FA and still was able to have the worst record in basketball…kiddos to you fizz as you helped the NYK take another 2 steps backwards!
Nice troll job with the pic LOL
Very well deserved award.
Remember the rumor he had second thoughts over the job because Parker walked
the hell luke walton endured he definitely deserved it
The job he did for the Bucks surely helped with his reputation. But, I believe the Brooklyn Nets’ coach did a better job.