After one of their best seasons in recent history, the Atlanta Hawks are ready to give credit where it’s due and reward the man behind the franchise’s recent success. Head coach Mike Budenholzer, or Coach Bud as fans affectionately call him, will be promoted to team president and officially become the head of basketball operations within the franchise. This past season, Budenholzer was able to lead the Hawks to the NBA Conference Finals for the first time since 1970. On top of that, he was able to take a team of relatively unknown players and turn them into a powerhouse for the majority of the season. Under Budenholzer, the Hawks achieved the second-best regular season record in the league during the 2014-2015 season and also clinched the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference. For that, the Hawks are ready to hand more power over to him in hopes that he will keep leading the team in the right direction.
As the Hawks’ new team president, Budenholzer will be replacing current president of basketball operations and general manager Danny Ferry. Along with this change in personnel, assistant general manager Wes Wilcox will be promoted to general manager. Ferry took a leave of absence before the start of this past NBA season after it was revealed that he made some racially insensitive remarks during a conference call with the team’s owners. During this period, Budenholzer and Wilcox stepped up and took over Ferry’s responsibilities throughout the season. So while these two have been acting out their new roles for some time now, this latest move by the Hawks will finally make it official.
Coach Bud will now join the likes of other distinguished NBA coaches, including Gregg Popovich, Stan Van Gundy, Doc Rivers, and Flip Saunders, as one of the few individuals to be both the president and head coach of a franchise.
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