Two years after leading the Milwaukee Bucks to the NBA title, longtime head coach Mike Budenholzer is out of a job.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Thursday that Milwaukee has fired Budenholzer following an historic meltdown in the first-round of the 2023 NBA Playoffs against the Miami Heat.
Milwaukee finished this past regular season with a league-best 58-24 record. It then proceeded to lose to the eighth-seeded Miami Heat in five games to open the postseason.
The backdrop here was that star forward and two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo dealt with a back injury throughout the series. Front office head Jon Horst and company apparently did not view that as a reasonable excuse for the Bucks’ postseason failures.
During his five-year run in with the Bucks, Budenholzer led them to two Eastern Conference Finals appearances and an NBA title. He’ll go down as the organization’s most successful head coach since their infancy under Larry Costello back in the 1960's and 1970's.
As for the Bucks, Milwaukee must now engage in a wide-ranging search for a new head coach, one who can take advantage of the presence of the Greek Freak and take on the torch for future postseason runs.
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