The Celtics have officially announced in a press release (Twitter link) that they have suspended head coach Ime Udoka for the entirety of the 2022/23 NBA season, as had been expected. Ominously, the club also announced that it will decide Udoka’s long-term fate with the franchise “at a later date.”
Udoka, who is engaged, reportedly had a consensual affair with a female Celtics staffer, which has been determined to be a violation of Boston’s “organizational guidelines.” Udoka issued a statement expressing remorse for his actions, as Malika Andrews of ESPN relays (via Twitter).
“I want to apologize to our players, fans, the entire Celtics organization, and my family for letting them down,” Udoka said. “I am sorry for putting the team in this difficult situation, and I accept the team’s decision. Out of respect for everyone involved, I will have no further comment.”
As had been previously reported, Boston will elevate assistant coach Joe Mazzulla to the role of interim head coach, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets.
Mazzulla previously served as an assistant coach with the team’s NBAGL affiliate, then called the Maine Red Claws, during the 2016/17 season. He has been a Boston assistant since 2019, when the Celtics were still led on the sidelines by Stevens.
Whether or not Udoka actually remains in Boston following his suspension remains somewhat up in the air. A source informs Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated (via Twitter) that there is a chance Udoka will ultimately not be permitted to return to the team as coach.
Udoka was known as one of the league’s top assistants over much of the last decade. He was hired for his first head coaching gig with the Celtics last summer following stints in San Antonio, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn. In what may have been his lone year with the club, Udoka led Boston to a 51-31 record and an NBA Finals berth, finishing fourth in Coach of the Year voting.
Fielding a similar roster in 2020/21 while being coached by current team president Brad Stevens, the Celtics had gone just 36-36, earning the No. 7 seed in the East and suffering a first-round playoff elimination.
The girl has to be hooked up with a member of the Board of Directors of the Celtics
Wholeheartedly agree. Or it was wasn’t consensual. Maybe he got her pregnant. I hate speculating but the crime doesn’t fit the punishment.
You don’t S**t we’re you eat
You familiar with corporate standards?
Clearly they are not
All it takes is one other employee to claim she was receiving preferential treatment because of her relationship with him for the Celtics to be dealing with a lot of litigation they rightly don’t want to deal with or pay for. It’s a business decision not a moral one. Most companies have these kinds of rules in place. On the same level usually means no problem, but when one is in a place of “authority” the issues begin. Preferential treatment, can one really consent under authority, etc.
Fenway Sports Group LLC is the owner of the Celtics. It is a publicly traded company that also owns other sports teams
Fenway Sports Group does not own the Celtics. Do your homework.
Talk about a conflict of interest? Imagine LeBron James being part owner of the Celtics and playing for the Lakers?
@Al
What @mikedickson said. He “only” owns the Red Sox and Fenway as far as the Boston market is concerned.
Thank you. I was totally wrong
As others have stated.
1. Corporate guidelines.
2. The “woman” filled a complaint rightly or wrongly”
3. Other employees felt slighted because of perceived favoritism
4. Other employees rightly had been excluded or held back (discriminated) against because of this relationship
5. Internal check points. I.T. monitoring emails or company phones.
6. Either person coming clean to other higher up. Either expecting leniency or clemency.
7. The significant other catching the person and reporting to the organization or threatening lawsuits, leaks to press
Sooooo many ways this could play out. Including. Many not mentioned
The real story will eventually come out
Don’t see how he could come back as head coach. No way that the players and rest of the organization will see him the same way. Truly tragic situation for the Celtics, I have their ceiling as losing in the second round
Most of the players completely “understand”. He will be back. He went to the Finals in his first year. Now, had they exited the Playoffs in the first round, then he would probably be looking for work.
Don’t dip your pen in the company ink
Without knowing the details of the relationship this seems heavy handed. Unless it’s really scandalous or she was in a position that could’ve put the team in serious jeopardy then I would’ve given him 3 month of no pay.
That being said, as a Black man, c’mon bro. You get a shot to coach a legendary NBA brand and you fumble the opportunity after having a great playoff run? And you got Nia at home? Brandi? Debbie? Nina? Lisa? You bugging fam. I totally get it. You got more options but damn. Greedy.
It’s a legal corporate issue that’s against HR standards in most big companies. She could sue at any time. It’s a liability
@Lionel
I understand that completely.
Yes but to @KFCF’s point … HR violations don’t unilaterally get enforced with this type of draconian punishment. Organizations don’t make drastic personnel decisions because they MIGHT get sued.
Because even if it’s a litigation issue, as mentioned above, given how valuable Udoka was to the team last year, it’s HIGHLY likely that Boston would have been more than willing to offer a HIGHLY generous settlement to the person making the complaint before going public and upending their entire season.
So there’s really two options:
1) The person filed a complaint and – rather than taking a large sum of money to keep quiet – preferred to just (potentially) ruin Udoka’s career. Possible but given the normal human temperament, not extremely likely.
2) Udoka was either a repeat offender and/or had a liaison with the wife of someone who matters enough in the organization that they went nuclear on him.
Udoka gets suspended a year for having consensual sex and then the team promotes a women beater, yea that makes sense
Man got a bigger punishment than Watson. Crazy what you can and can’t get away with in 2022.
Yikes. I had to look that up. That’s domestic violence thing isn’t a good look. Surely they could’ve got someone else
See I know this is hard, but if Mazzula was coach of the Celtics and he was a ‘women beater” while employed he would be fired. And if Udoka had an affair with a woman before he was employed by the Celtics they wouldn’t care.
I know…it’s super confusing.
So as long as beating women doesn’t happen under your favor teams umbrella, you support it? Interesting.
Was I talking about my own thoughts or opinions on anything?
I know, it’s confusing. You’re doing your best though.
I do like favor teams though.
Yes you were. Next time you’re confused on what your talking about, just came and ask. I’ll straighten you out.
Ok buddy, I will came and ask on what I’m talking about.
Poor guy.
Seriously there has to be more. He gets same punishment as Sarver. God bless america. Shocking how rich you are decides what punishment receive. lmao
Two completely different entities doled out the punishment for Sarver and Udoka. They literally have nothing to do with each other.
Also, one is an owner who purchased his team and hold certain rights while the other is the employee of another franchise. Not equal at all.
The article from TheAthletic on this story includes this nugget:
“Some members of the Celtics organization first became aware of the relationship in July, sources said. At that time, team leadership was led to believe by both parties that the relationship was consensual. But sources said that the woman recently accused Udoka of making unwanted comments toward her — leading the team to launch a set of internal interviews.”
So, indeed, there may be more than meets the eye.
Well then credit to all parties involved for at least keeping the private details private.
Of course there is, as I said on another thread everyone is pontificating with absolutely zero facts.
It’s pointless.
That makes sense – I noted two options above that I thought most likely but a third is definitely that the relationship was less than consensual.
But if it really comes out that that was the case then I don’t see how they don’t outright fire Udoka.
Money makes the world go round.
Public defender-prison time
Pay for big time lawyer- probation
Ahahahah forget this Bum!!! All the freaks in the world and he chooses a married coworker with 3 kids. I bet Nia Long sucks in the sack for him to stray this low. This isn’t a race issue or anything similarly sinister. He’s lucky to have a job for the time being. I’d fire him immediately. I’m always down to call race issues or unfairness when it’s right but this pure foolishness on his part.
Actually he isn’t lucky to have a job. If they fired him, he would still get paid and he could get hired somewhere else
I’ve been a similar position as Ime Udoka only it was the boss’s daughter. You can bet he fired my ass, looking back now i definitely deserved it as it was on company time. I was 23 and she 20 at the time though, dudes 45 he should know better.
I suppose that job wasn’t the pinnacle of your career effort to achieve success pulled out from under you because of your indiscretion. Probably easier for you to say the fun was worth it?
Ehhh, yes and no. At the time I was the sous chef in the banquet kitchen of a major resort, but hey I was 23 and I’ll admit she was fun and I recovered nicely.
He’s pretty much finished there. They’ll mutually part ways.
latest reporting makes me wonder whether Ime made a “rookie mistake” and got involved with a staffer. Staffer then made a request for “gifts”. Request for “gifts” was denied. Ultimately not providing “gifts” causes a once “comfortable” situation to become one with comments that are now “unwanted”. (This is also why office romance is frowned upon. Things tend to get ugly. You can’t have that on the job!).
A man chasing boots. Yeah that’s news. So much in the world. Why would you do it in your own building. Not very smart. Way past unprofessional. Wonder if the engagement is Off……
Vegas unimpresssed, Celtics remain title favorites as of this morning.
Just wait until Malcolm Brogdon goes down while jogging during warmups in practice.
Yet Watson gets to play this year and has the biggest contract in nfl history. We live in a backwards society