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Former Phoenix Suns big man Jusuf Nurkic said in a recent interview posted online that Mike Budenholzer was an “alcohol addict” in criticizing his coaching and interactions with players.
“The situation we were in, the environment we were in, and then you find out, well, I don’t even know if I should say this, but the guy was an alcohol addict,” Nurkic said during an interview with X&Os Chat with Edin Avdic that was posted May 31. “He was really having a problem with it.”
Basketball Sphere translated the interview into English in a May 31 tweet.
Team owner Mat Ishbia fired Budenholzer after one season in which the Suns won just 36 games in 2024-25 and missed the playoffs with Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal on the roster.
At the time Budenholzer was let go, The Arizona Republic reported rumblings about his future escalating after a Feb. 27 home loss to New Orleans, which won just 21 games that season.
The Suns were 27-32 at the time under the two-time NBA Coach of the Year.
Nurkic said Budenholzer tried to teach Durant, now the NBA’s fifth all-time leading scorer with 32,597 points, how to get buckets.
“He was literally explaining to Kevin Durant how to score a basket,” said a laughing Nurkic. “If he had been telling me or (Eric) Gordon or Royce (O’Neale) or Grayson (Allen), whatever, but explaining to Kevin Durant how to score? That’s like explaining to a pilot how to fly a plane. I don’t know, not just for me, but to everyone, the whole system felt so absurd.”
Nurkic later said Budenholzer intentionally tried to frustrate players.
“He would schedule 1-on-1 meetings just to provoke people,” Nurkic said. “He’d tell Bradley Beal, Grayson Allen, ‘You have no idea. You need to be this, you need to be that.’ I mean, you’d just sit there and couldn’t believe what you were hearing.”
Nurkic then recalls Budenholzer calling him a “bad teammate” during that season.
“I told him, ‘Listen man, we can talk about anything, whether I’m playing poorly or badly, whether I can improve, whatever, but for you to tell me that,’” Nurkic said. “He was like this camera right here, small. And he is just picking fights and provoking people.”
Nurkic spent this past 2025-26 season with the Utah Jazz as he averaged 10.9 points, 10.4 rebounds and a career-high 4.8 assists in just 41 games in his first year with the team.
Jazz coach Will Hardy spoke highly of Nurkic during the season.
“Nurk’s been awesome,” Hardy said back in October 2025. “I know when the other team gets near him, we get open. He’s a heck of a screener. He does a good job of creating space for all our perimeter players. You don’t push him off the spot very easily around the basket. He’s been able to hold his space and use his physicality to rebound.”
The 7-footer is an unrestricted free agent.
The Suns traded Deandre Ayton to Portland in a three-team deal in acquiring Nurkic from the Blazers, going into the 2023-24 season.
Nurkic averaged 10.9 points and 11 rebounds in his first season with the Suns, who won 49 games under Frank Vogel to earn a third seed in the 2024 playoffs, but the Minnesota Timberwolves swept them in the first round.
The Suns fired Vogel after one season and replaced him with Budenholzer, whose relationship with Nurkic began nicely as he visited him overseas during that 2024 summer.
The relationship eventually turned rocky. Nurkic said during an interview with The Republic on Jan. 25, 2025, that he and Budenholzer hadn’t talked in two months.
“We don’t have a relationship,” Nurkic said back then. “So, it’s fine. For me, just be a pro and do the best I can. Work and stay ready for whatever might be, but there is no chaos or bringing that to this team. They already have plenty of it. Trying to be as professional as I can and work my ass off for something else.”
The Suns played the Washington Wizards later that night in Phoenix.
After a 119-109 win, Budenholzer said there had been conversations with the Suns' bigs at the time about earning minutes.
“It’s never easy in this league,” Budenholzer said, regarding Nurkic’s “relationship” comments. "He hasn’t played. I’m sure he’s frustrated. I respect that.”
The Suns traded Nurkic and a 2026 first-round pick to the Charlotte Hornets for Vasa Micic, Cody Martin and a second-round selection before the 2025 trade deadline.
Budenholzer was Phoenix’s third coach in three years. The Milwaukee Bucks had fired him after the 2022-23 season. Budenholzer coached the Bucks to an NBA championship in the 2020-21 season.
Milwaukee defeated the Suns in the 2021 NBA Finals in six games.
At his introductory press conference back in May 2024, the Arizona native talked about spending that year away from coaching to further connect with his kids, travel and get his mind and body right.
“This year for me was really healthy,” Budenholzer said, with his voice cracking from emotion. “I kind of had a list of priorities, diving into my kids and my family, super important. We’ve been through a lot. Really, the time with my kids was amazing. My son is a senior in high school. Going to every one of his games, driving home, you're like, wow, I got a gift. So diving into family and kids was awesome."
The Suns started the 2024-25 season 9-2, but fizzled to the point of missing postseason play for the first time since 2019-20.
Phoenix then hired Jordan Ott to replace Budenholzer. The Suns won 45 games and returned to the playoffs this past season under the first-year coach, who landed his first NBA job as a video coordinator in 2013 with the Atlanta Hawks when Budenholzer was Atlanta’s head coach.
The Oklahoma City Thunder swept the eighth-seeded Suns in the first round of this year's playoffs. Ott finished fifth in the 2025-26 NBA Coach of the Year voting.
Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at [email protected] or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Jusuf Nurkic says Mike Budenholzer was an 'alcohol addict'
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“The situation we were in, the environment we were in, and then you find out, well, I don’t even know if I should say this, but the guy was an alcohol addict,” Nurkic said during an interview with X&Os Chat with Edin Avdic that was posted May 31. “He was really having a problem with it.”
Basketball Sphere translated the interview into English in a May 31 tweet.
Team owner Mat Ishbia fired Budenholzer after one season in which the Suns won just 36 games in 2024-25 and missed the playoffs with Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal on the roster.
At the time Budenholzer was let go, The Arizona Republic reported rumblings about his future escalating after a Feb. 27 home loss to New Orleans, which won just 21 games that season.
The Suns were 27-32 at the time under the two-time NBA Coach of the Year.
Nurkic said Budenholzer tried to teach Durant, now the NBA’s fifth all-time leading scorer with 32,597 points, how to get buckets.
“He was literally explaining to Kevin Durant how to score a basket,” said a laughing Nurkic. “If he had been telling me or (Eric) Gordon or Royce (O’Neale) or Grayson (Allen), whatever, but explaining to Kevin Durant how to score? That’s like explaining to a pilot how to fly a plane. I don’t know, not just for me, but to everyone, the whole system felt so absurd.”
Nurkic later said Budenholzer intentionally tried to frustrate players.
“He would schedule 1-on-1 meetings just to provoke people,” Nurkic said. “He’d tell Bradley Beal, Grayson Allen, ‘You have no idea. You need to be this, you need to be that.’ I mean, you’d just sit there and couldn’t believe what you were hearing.”
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Nurkic then recalls Budenholzer calling him a “bad teammate” during that season.
“I told him, ‘Listen man, we can talk about anything, whether I’m playing poorly or badly, whether I can improve, whatever, but for you to tell me that,’” Nurkic said. “He was like this camera right here, small. And he is just picking fights and provoking people.”
Nurkic spent this past 2025-26 season with the Utah Jazz as he averaged 10.9 points, 10.4 rebounds and a career-high 4.8 assists in just 41 games in his first year with the team.
Jazz coach Will Hardy spoke highly of Nurkic during the season.
“Nurk’s been awesome,” Hardy said back in October 2025. “I know when the other team gets near him, we get open. He’s a heck of a screener. He does a good job of creating space for all our perimeter players. You don’t push him off the spot very easily around the basket. He’s been able to hold his space and use his physicality to rebound.”
The 7-footer is an unrestricted free agent.
The Suns traded Deandre Ayton to Portland in a three-team deal in acquiring Nurkic from the Blazers, going into the 2023-24 season.
Nurkic averaged 10.9 points and 11 rebounds in his first season with the Suns, who won 49 games under Frank Vogel to earn a third seed in the 2024 playoffs, but the Minnesota Timberwolves swept them in the first round.
The Suns fired Vogel after one season and replaced him with Budenholzer, whose relationship with Nurkic began nicely as he visited him overseas during that 2024 summer.
The relationship eventually turned rocky. Nurkic said during an interview with The Republic on Jan. 25, 2025, that he and Budenholzer hadn’t talked in two months.
“We don’t have a relationship,” Nurkic said back then. “So, it’s fine. For me, just be a pro and do the best I can. Work and stay ready for whatever might be, but there is no chaos or bringing that to this team. They already have plenty of it. Trying to be as professional as I can and work my ass off for something else.”
The Suns played the Washington Wizards later that night in Phoenix.
After a 119-109 win, Budenholzer said there had been conversations with the Suns' bigs at the time about earning minutes.
“It’s never easy in this league,” Budenholzer said, regarding Nurkic’s “relationship” comments. "He hasn’t played. I’m sure he’s frustrated. I respect that.”
The Suns traded Nurkic and a 2026 first-round pick to the Charlotte Hornets for Vasa Micic, Cody Martin and a second-round selection before the 2025 trade deadline.
Budenholzer was Phoenix’s third coach in three years. The Milwaukee Bucks had fired him after the 2022-23 season. Budenholzer coached the Bucks to an NBA championship in the 2020-21 season.
Milwaukee defeated the Suns in the 2021 NBA Finals in six games.
At his introductory press conference back in May 2024, the Arizona native talked about spending that year away from coaching to further connect with his kids, travel and get his mind and body right.
“This year for me was really healthy,” Budenholzer said, with his voice cracking from emotion. “I kind of had a list of priorities, diving into my kids and my family, super important. We’ve been through a lot. Really, the time with my kids was amazing. My son is a senior in high school. Going to every one of his games, driving home, you're like, wow, I got a gift. So diving into family and kids was awesome."
The Suns started the 2024-25 season 9-2, but fizzled to the point of missing postseason play for the first time since 2019-20.
Phoenix then hired Jordan Ott to replace Budenholzer. The Suns won 45 games and returned to the playoffs this past season under the first-year coach, who landed his first NBA job as a video coordinator in 2013 with the Atlanta Hawks when Budenholzer was Atlanta’s head coach.
The Oklahoma City Thunder swept the eighth-seeded Suns in the first round of this year's playoffs. Ott finished fifth in the 2025-26 NBA Coach of the Year voting.
Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at [email protected] or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
Support local journalism. Start your online subscription.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Jusuf Nurkic says Mike Budenholzer was an 'alcohol addict'
Continue reading...
