Getty Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics talks with head coach Ime Udoka against the Golden State Warriors during the second quarter in Game Six of the 2022 NBA Finals.
Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart was one of several Celtics players who expressed frustration with the secretive way the team handled former head coach Ime Udoka’s suspension on Media Day in September.
On Wednesday, speaking to Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe, Smart said the Celtics “obviously” wish Udoka was still in Boston after news broke on Tuesday that the Brooklyn Nets plan to hire Udoka as a replacement for Steve Nash.
“We have no control over that,” Smart told Himmelsbach. “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.”
Smart added that seeing a talented coach like Udoka go to the Nets is tough to stomach, especially since the Nets are also considered a contender in the Eastern Conference.
“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?”
Still, Smart he was clear that the Celtics are happy with interim coach Joe Mazzulla, who has been with the team since 2019. He compared the situation to having multiple best friends.
“They’re both our brothers and we love them the same,” Smart told Himmelsbach. “Unfortunately, the circumstances called for some desperate measures and Joe has the coaching job, so that’s who we’re listening to and that’s who we’re rocking with. We still love Ime, but Joe is our coach.”
Smart’s Frustrations Date Back to Media Day
Just a few days after news broke of Udoka’s suspension in September, the Celtics spoke to reporters at Media Day. Many of the questions revolved around the Udoka situation and how players hoped to respond.
At the time, Smart said he was “definitely” comfortable with how the organization handled things, but he believed players deserved more information.
“Literally no one knows anything right now,” Smart said. “We’re still waiting just like everybody else. So as a player, you’d like to know, but that’s none of our business and it’s their lives, the people that are involved, it’s between them and we should respect that privacy and we understand, just like we want our privacy respected. Although as a player, yeah, you’d like to know, but like I said, it’s not an obligation.”
Smart described the situation as “hell for us.”
“I think the hardest thing is it did happen so quickly,” he said. “It happened in enough time where we didn’t have enough time to really understand anything until Media Day, so we just kind of — like you guys — have been thrown here. This is what’s going on, and we still have to go out and do our job. So it’s been tough, because this type of situation takes away, unfortunately, from the players who are here and have put in the work and who are going out there to do their job.”
Jaylen Brown Is Glad to See Udoka Land a New Job
Per Himmelsbach, Celtics star Jaylen Brown said Wednesday that it “sucks” Udoka is headed to the Nets, but he is glad to see his former coach is getting another shot in the NBA.
“I’m just happy to see a Black head coach end up back on his feet,” Brown told Himmelsbach, “because I’ve seen situations where something like this might not have been the case.”