San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Budenholzer follows footsteps of longtime mentor Popovich
MILWAUKEE — There are times, even three decades later, when Milwaukee Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer still wakes up in a Gregg Popovich-induced cold sweat.
Did I splice up the sequences of Dallas pick-and-roll coverages Popovich had requested? Did I forget to cut up film of the Sacramento Kings’ most-used baseline out-of-bounds plays?
“I wouldn’t ever use the word ‘nightmare,’ ” Budenholzer said. “Sometimes, I guess, there are flashbacks.”
Once a Spurs video coordinator, it turns out, always a Spurs video coordinator.
The 52-year-old Budenholzer was fresh-faced out of Pomona-Pitzer College in California when Popovich handed him the keys to the film room in 1994.
“I think we might have had reelto-reel back then,” Popovich said jokingly.
Budenholzer parlayed his first NBA job into a 20-year run as a Popovich staffer, leaving to take the head coaching job in Atlanta in 2013.
On Saturday at Fiserv Forum, Popovich and Budenholzer met for the first time under the 2021 NBA championship banner his former protégé helped lift to the rafters last season.
Budenholzer credits his success to his first NBA job as Popovich’s gofer in the film room.
It was there, warmed by the glow of the projector screen, that Budenholzer first learned the ins and outs of the professional game.
“It’s just a lot of hard work, a lot of attention to detail — all the things that are important to having a good teams and good program,” Budenholzer said.
Popovich briefly recruited Budenholzer — a shooting guard from Holbrook, Ariz., to play at Pomona-Pitzer. By the time Budeholzer joined the Sagehens’ program, Popovich had left to take a
job on Larry Brown’s staff in San Antonio.
After Budenholzer finished a four-year stint at Pomona — lettering in basketball and golf — Popovich helped Budenholzer get a sneaker in the door in the NBA.
That in turn afforded Budehnholzer a ground-floor seat to one of the greatest runs in NBA history.
He was on board for four Spurs’ championships, leaving for Atlanta before the Spurs won their fifth title in 2013-14.
One thing Budenholzer learned from his tenure under Popovich: It takes great players to make a title team.
Just as the Spurs were built around Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, Milwaukee’s rise began with the arrival of twotime MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and a supporting cast that includes a pair of All-Stars in Jrue Holiday and former Texas A&M player Khris Middleton.
“You just have to have great players, and you have to treat them with great care,” Budenholzer said. “Players want to stay and play for great organizations, and they want to stay and play for people who care about them.
“That’s the biggest thing I took as a lesson from our time in San Antonio.”
Another lesson Budenholzer learned with the Spurs: Putting together a championship-caliber team increases expectations.
Just as Popovich’s tenure as Spurs coach nearly came to an early end after a sluggish start to the 1998-99 season, many across the NBA viewed last season as a titleor-bust campaign for Budenholzer in Milwaukee.
When the Bucks began an Eastern Conference series against Brooklyn in an 0-2, hole, the proverbial buzzards began circling.
“The biggest thing was their approach,” said Spurs guard Bryn Forbes, who played under Budenholzer last season in Milwaukee. “Every single game, they never got too high, never got too low. They’re down 0-2 to Brooklyn, and it was the same composure the whole way through.”
When the Bucks beat the Nets and Hawks to reach the NBA Finals, Popovich found himself facing a dilemma.
To earn its first championship since 1971, Milwaukee would need to win a series against a Phoenix team coached by Monty Williams, who played for Popovich and later served on the Spurs’ staff in various capacities.
“It’s like, in a way, a no-lose situation from my perspective,” Popovich said. “I’m thrilled for both those guys getting where they got with their teams and doing such a great job. It’s a win-win.”
When the Bucks finished off the Suns in six games, he became the first Popovich assistant to hoist a Larry O’Brien trophy of his own.
One of the first calls Budenholzer took after Game 6 was from Popovich, who, at the time, was preparing his USA Basketball squad for the Tokyo Olympics.
Popovich was not the only wellwisher from whom Budenholzer heard. He got a few more Alamo City backslaps last week, when the Bucks visited the AT&T Center for a 121-111 victory.
“I joked with a few people, ‘I didn’t think it could ever happen outside of San Antonio,’ ” Budenholzer said.
Early in the 2021-22 campaign, Popovich and Budenholzer find themselves coaching different teams with different goals.
The Spurs are rebuilding after posting back-to-back losing campaigns, and Popovich — in his 26th season — is at the helm of the youngest roster he has ever had.
Budenholzer, meanwhile, is hoping to do something with the Bucks that Popovich — for all his accomplishments — never did with the Spurs.
That’s win back-to-back championships.
These are the moments Budenholzer dreams about — when not suffering through Popovich filmroom flashbacks.
“Any championship is incredibly difficult,” Budenholzer said. “It takes so many things to be that last team standing. To do it twice in a row is even more difficult, if that’s possible.
“We’d love to give it our best shot.”