Mike Budenholzer gets choked up thanking Gregg Popovich

Atlanta Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer chokes up thanking mentor Gregg Popovich in his Coach of the Year acceptance speech.

Mike Budenholzer and Gregg Popovich have a special relationship, the nature of which was evident on Tuesday.

Hawks coach Budenholzer was named NBA Coach of the Year on Tuesday, but he did not find out from Adam Silver or anyone else in the league office. Instead, he found out from his mentor, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich.

Popovich, who previously had Budenholzer as one of his assistants in San Antonio, called the Hawks coach to let him know the news.

The Hawks organization, upon finding out from NBA about the award, called Popovich to ask him if he wanted to break the news to Bud. He did.
— Jaryd Wilson (@JarydWilson) April 21, 2015

Fittingly, Budenholzer thanked Popovich during his acceptance speech, but he had a hard time making it through.

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From Budenholzer’s speech:

“It seems appropriate to finish with the real Coach of the Year, Gregg Popovich. This award has a permanent spot on his desk in San Antonio,” Budenholzer said. “He just shares it around every couple years and lets us take a picture of it. I might be able to sneak back into his office and put it back down. I was very, very fortunate to be so close to a coach who’s done so much for the league, done so much for so many coaches, and has shared so much with me. And I can’t even begin to articulate how thankful I am and all the things I’ve learned.”

“I thought the thing that Pop did for me and did for a lot of coaches, is he let me coach. It seems really simple. That’s part of the beauty about being with Pop and being around Pop, is that sometimes the things that are the most successful are very, very simple. He let us coach. He let us coach with him. And he always talks about how his players have allowed themselves to be coached by Pop. I think I speak for myself and a ton of my colleagues, it’s a long list, that I get to speak publicly and thank Pop for letting us coach with him.”

Watch the whole video below or fast forward to the eight-minute mark for his comments on Popovich. Either way, make sure you have a tissue handy.

Geez, is someone chopping onions in here?

Seeing this much love and admiration between an established mentor and his successful mentee is the best. We need a picture of these two hugging it out.

Or, even better, a match up in the NBA Finals. Then we’d see if the student is truly becoming the teacher.

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