Popovich broke the news to Budenholzer that he won Coach of the Year

Beneath the grumpy exterior, San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich is actually a bit of a sweetheart.

Popovich's former assistant Mike Budenholzer took home Coach of the Year honors on Tuesday for leading his Atlanta Hawks to a 60-win season. And it was Popovich who broke the news to his former pupil.

The NBA office called the Hawks to inform them of Budenholzer's award. But instead of relaying the message to their head coach, the Hawks instead asked Popovich to deliver the good news. Popovich obliged, of course. 

The ties between Budenholzer and Popovich dates back 20 years.

Budenholzer started as a video coordinator with the Spurs in 1994 while Popovich served as the general manager. When Popovich moved into his role as head coach, Popovich promoted Budenholzer to assistant. The coaching tandem then worked together - through four championships - until 2013, when Budenholzer left his post to head up the Hawks in Atlanta.

In his acceptance speech Tuesday, Budenholzer wrapped up by thanking Popovich, who he called, "the real coach of the year."

"This award has a permanent spot on his desk in San Antonio," Budenholzer joked. "He just shares it around every couple of years and lets us take a picture with it."

I was very, very fortunate to be so close to a coach who has done so much for our league, done so much for so many coaches and has shared so much with me. 

I can't even begin to articulate how thankful I am for all the things I've learned. But 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 and that's part of the beauty about being with Pop and being around Pop, is sometimes the things that are 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.

It prepared me for my opportunity and I think that's what the role of a coach is, to prepare his team, to prepare a player or to prepare a person for his opportunity and I just want to thank Pop for preparing me for this opportunity.