Ime aint a victim. Yet
It feels like the tide is turning in the public opinion of Ime Udoka’s “Suspension” and that’s a bad thing for the Celtics.
The Nets dumpster fire miraculously continues to grow with the latest ingenious enlightening remarks from the Messiah, Kyrie Irving. This just hours after Sean Marks scapegoated Steve Nash by firing him 7 games into a season. The same season Marks refused to fulfill Durant’s request to fire Nash or trade him. Ime Udoka’s name was immediately reported as the replacement for Nash.
As a rookie head coach Udoka was able to lead a Celtics team to the NBA Finals. He steadied a ship that was on the verge of major collapse. The Celtics were on a downward spiral basically ever since the bubble. Mid way through the 2021-2022 season Udoka had the Celtics straightened out. They finished the year with the best record and the #1 defense in the league. That 1 short track record as a head coach apparently has the Nets willing to look pass that fact the he was suspended for a year for inappropriate sexual behavior with in the Celtics organization. Such behavior described as “100 times worse than I originally thought” by Matt Barnes when the story broke.
Udoka has his own share of controversies, as he was suspended from being the Boston Celtics head coach after he "used crude language in dialogue with female subordinate prior to start of improper relationship play." This was all confirmed by an independent law firm that probed the situation, which significantly factored in the one-year suspension that Udoka faced.
The news of an Ime signing by the Nets brought forward comments from Celtics players. Surprise, Surprise. Guess who was front and center.
"Obviously, we wish he was here," Smart said of Udoka. "We have no control over that. It definitely sucks. I guess it was deemed that whatever happened was enough for him not to be the coach here, but I guess not enough for him [not] to be a coach anywhere else, obviously."
"His name got slandered and slaughtered and it was 'He’ll probably never coach again,'" Smart said. "And a couple of months later, now he’s possibly going to be the coach of one of our biggest rivals? It’s tough. It makes no sense."
JAYLEN BROWN:
“I’m just happy to see a Black head coach end up back on his feet,” Brown said, according to the Globe, “because I’ve seen situations where something like this might not have been the case.”
Any way you slice this there is only one ending that goes well for the Celtics. Ime Udoka goes away and we don’t hear from him until at least the end of the season.
Here is the deal. The Celtics can’t be so dumb to basically fire their coach who was 2 wins away from a championship. A coach who has 100% of the player’s support. He doesn’t get fired/ suspended unless they had to fire him. Udoka was fucking around with married women and subordinates with in the organization. At the very least that’s what he was doing. Rumors are one of the women was a close friend to Danny Ainge. There’s added pressure there. There are also reports of sexual harassment. If we are to believe Barnes it’s worse than that. Ime walked away with a short apology and acceptance of his behavior with no push back. Hey Marcus! Your boy Udoka isn’t the victim. He fucked up. He let you down. Not the Celtics.
Now, I can see why the Celtics would want to just be rid of this guy. Get away from it all. Not have to pay his salary if the Nets take it on. There is some logic there. Here is the problems:
#1 The player’s reaction. They clearly don’t have enough or all the information. They are constantly getting blind sided. Udoka was their coach, mentor, friend. Human nature kicks in and immaturity is the calling card of this Marcus Smart, longet tenured Celtic, core. So, are they going to stop and look at this situation from a big boy point of view? Like, maybe having the head coach fuck his way through the organization for fun just maybe isn’t the culture Auerbach and Bill Russell had in mind? Nope doesn’t sound like a Marcus Smart reaction.
#2 We don’t know enough. If Ime’s indiscretions were indeed bad enough to merit his punishment how on earth does he have a job just 2 weeks into the season? Does that say more about a Celtics over reaction or the Nets complete disregard for any morality whatsoever? It’s not hard to think it’s the latter. The owner is funding Uyghur genocide (allegedly) and the hall of fame point guard doesn't believe the Holocaust happened.
#3 He is a good coach and the Brooklyn Dumpsterfires are a rival. Lets not just give them a life line.
Best thing for the Celtics to do is bury Udoka deep in the sock drawer like a dry bag of weed in the 8th grade. Pull out it when you’re good and ready or have completely forgotten about it. Letting the Nets have him is like your Mom finding it doing laundry and wanting “have a talk”. It’s unsettling.
The Celtics made it clear Ime Udoka should not be coaching this season in Boston. Why should that be different anywhere else?