On Wednesday, CARW welcomed Coach Mike Budenholzer to breakfast for our RPAC LDC and sponsors. Coach talked about what various aspects of leadership and what it takes to create a championship team. To him, preparing for next year means doing what he can to keep his championship team together. He spoke about building around key players and recognizing strengths of individuals. As a coach, he must be able to build a culture of trust and respect amongst the team and the fans. He said in several ways that “it is as important what you do on the court as it is off the court, each and every day.” Coach Budenholzer shard stories of about moving through the playoff rounds in 2020 and in 2021 when they won the Championship, speaking not to his own leadership ability, but the leadership and tenacity of the players including Pat Connaughton, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bobby Portis and Brook Lopez amongst others.
If he wasn’t an NBA coach, he’d be doing commercial real estate thanks to a brother-in-law in the business showing him the ropes at an early age. He also shared that what he loves about Wisconsin is the normal, genuinely nice people. Coming from a small town himself, Wisconsin is an easy place to call home. Wisconsin fans love their basketball and are loyal to their teams.
Although he has five Championship wins (4 as assistant coach of the Spurs and one with the Bucks), he is humble and grateful.
The Championship trophy, Larry, stays with the Championship team and will be kept in a place for all Milwaukeeans to enjoy – the Bucks will unveil the details soon. The Milwaukee Bucks players really took the trophy into the community over the course of the last year – unlike other teams in the past – each player would take it with them to their hometowns, or to events – that hadn’t been done before – but other cities going forward will likely do it because it brought the trophy to the people who all shared in the success of the team.
Who does Coach call when he’s looking to work through an issue or problem? He doesn’t have just one person – but he has a number of other coaches he reaches out to – or one of his five brothers (Coach Bud is one of seven kids). He was traveling with his brother who is a teacher in Hawaii. Both of Coach’s parents were teachers in Arizona when he was growing up.
Coach Bud is optimistic about the Bucks in 2022/23 – he loves his team and believes in them so much. Budenholzer also has a good feeling about the NBA draft happening this week.
Photos can be viewed HERE.