Former Nets Coach Could Be Fired After ‘Untenable’ Situation with Eastern Conference Rival

Ime Udoka

Getty Head coach Ime Udoka of the Boston Celtics reacts to a foul call on Grant Williams #12 during the third quarter against the Golden State Warriors

We are less than a week before the kick-off of most NBA training camps and with it quickly approaching, major news dropped about the Boston Celtics possibly suspending their head coach, Ime Udoka, for the entirety of the 2022-23 NBA Season. At first, the details of the reasoning behind the suspension were unknown and cited as a violation to organization rules. However, Shams Charania of The Athletic released more details via Twitter that the suspension involved “an improper intimate and consensual relationship with a female member of the team staff.” 

After a day of speculation, it was revealed that the head coach would in fact be suspended for the entire upcoming season. The Celtics shared the news via a press release on their official Twitter account at 9:23 pm on September 22. 


Will Ime Udoka Return as Coach of the Celtics?

Udoka was part of Steve Nash’s coaching staff as an assistant coach for the Brooklyn Nets before being offered the job in Boston. Much of his suspension remains speculation, but on a recent episode of The Celtics Collective Podcast, Celtics beat writer Adam Taylor wondered if the suspension was a way to fire Udoka without firing him. 

“When you look at the way it is kind of shaking out for Udoka, doesn’t his position become untenable anyway? Isn’t this a firing without firing situation? Right now, you’re putting him in a position where his entire ethos around the Celtics has been built on accountability and professionalism, you know, and now all of a sudden, you haven’t been professional, and you didn’t hold yourself accountable for your actions. This is obviously a little bit of speculation because we don’t know what’s going on. But now, if you’re suspended for a year, and you come back, and you try to continue implementing this culture this fast into your team, you’re not going to be able to carry the same authority that you did last season. And is Ime Udoka going to be willing to sit on the sidelines for a year, kind of taking his lumps? That way? It does feel like that one-year suspension, and we saw Um, I think it was Chris Mannix who tweeted this add that Udoka has considered the possibility of resigning, and I think that, you know, this could be a way of firing Udoka without firing him,” Taylor said on the recent episode of the podcast. 


Can Ime Udoka Recover From This? 

Udoka’s suspension is just for the year, and he could return next season. However, Boston’s reaction makes you wonder if there is more to the story. Heavy’s own Sean Deveney in the same podcast, wondered if the future of Udoka’s career could be impacted by the suspension. 

“It is something that, if you’re Ime Udoka, you do have to wonder. ‘Okay, if I have a year suspension. You don’t know what’s at the other what’s at the other end of that.’ But I think you also have to wonder too if at the end of that suspension, can I come back into this job if I resign? Where’s my next job? Where am I going after that? You know, because this, this, I mean this could be a career ender for him, and I’m sure he doesn’t want that either, obviously. So yeah, he’s in a pretty untenable situation here.”

 

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