Jusuf Nurkic Calls Mike Budenholzer An Alcohol Addict: Suns Coach Allegations Explode
Jusuf Nurkic did not just throw shade at Mike Budenholzer. He threw the whole building.
In an interview with X&Os Chat with Edin Avdic, Nurkic called his former Phoenix head coach an “alcohol addict.” Not a guy with a drinking problem. Not a man going through a hard time. An alcohol addict. Twice.
“I don’t even know if I should say this, but the guy was an alcohol addict. He was really having a problem with it.” That is the quote. It is now everywhere.
The reaction has been brutal. Nurkic is getting hammered across NBA media and former players are not lining up to defend him. Budenholzer lost his brother in a 2023 car crash while coaching the Bucks. Going scorched-earth on a man’s sobriety is a line most veterans would not cross publicly, especially in front of a podcast camera.
Nurkic did not stop at the alcohol comment. He claimed Budenholzer’s coaching style was hard for players to handle. He said one-on-one meetings turned confrontational. He went so far as to allege Budenholzer was literally explaining to Kevin Durant how to make a basket in a meeting. That is the kind of detail you cannot make up, but it is also the kind of detail that sounds like a guy losing perspective in real time.
The Suns experiment under Budenholzer was a disaster. Phoenix went 36-46. Durant, Booker, and Beal could not make it work. Budenholzer got fired before the 2025 playoffs even started. Nobody is going to argue he was a great fit.
But the way Nurkic chose to torch him crosses into territory that the league community is not going to brush off. Calling a former coach an alcohol addict on a podcast is not constructive criticism. It is a personal attack. And if you have to preface it with “I don’t even know if I should say this,” you already know you should not.
The Jazz, who are paying Nurkic this year, will eventually be asked about it. Danny Ainge does not love when his players become viral villains in June. Expect Nurkic to either issue some version of a clarification or get reminded privately to clean it up before training camp.
Budenholzer has not responded publicly. Smart move. Anything he says becomes the headline. Silence makes Nurkic look worse, not better.
Here is what this really is. Nurkic had a bad couple of years in Phoenix. He got traded. His reputation took hits. He wanted his version of the story on the record. He picked the loudest possible microphone and turned it up to 11.
The story is going to be told as Nurkic being too far over his skis. He gave Budenholzer something the fired coach can never quite shake. Nobody comes out of this looking great.
The Phoenix era is over for both of them. Apparently Nurkic is not letting it go.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
