By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The Milwaukee Bucks dismissed coach Mike Budenholzer, as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski first reported and a bit later the team confirmed.
The coach who led the Bucks to the 2021 NBA championship is out after the East’s top seed suffered a first-round loss to the Miami Heat. He had a contract until the summer of 2025.
The writings were already on the wall, with Heat’s Erik Spoelstra getting the credit of leading Miami to an admirable 4-1 series and the coaching of the Bucks considered one of the issues that the team had to solve.
“The decision to make this change was very difficult,” said Bucks general manager Jon Horst. “Bud helped lead our team for five incredible seasons, to the Bucks’ first title in 50 years, and into an era of sustained success. We are grateful for the culture of winning and leadership that Bud helped create in Milwaukee”.
“This is an opportunity for us to refocus and reenergize our efforts as we continue building toward our next championship season.”
During the series, Giannis Antetokounmpo was injured on his back, but even upon his return, the Bucks didn’t produce results, despite finishing the season on top of the NBA standings, having the best regular season record.
The questionmark at this point is who will replace him with the name of Nick Nurse being already mentioned. However it’s unclear if the Bucks have real interest in Nurse who recently left the Toronto Raptors, where he also won a championship title in 2019.