When Ime Udoka was suspended by the Boston Celtics in 2022 over an improper relationship with a female staffer on the team, players complained about being left in the dark about what exactly had transpired. With Udoka facing the Celtics for the first time as a head coach on Saturday, he was asked about the players being frustrated at the time, and he claims some of them were lying.
“I would say they lied to you guys,” Udoka said. “They knew, or some of them knew and, you know, obviously I could talk to them and they wouldn’t share stuff publicly. So, who needed to know, knew.”
(starts at 6:58 mark):
It is quite an interesting claim that Udoka has made here and it is a bit of a weird one to dissect as well. He might be implying here that he did tell some of them about the whole situation right after it happened and they chose to lie to the media, or that the organization told them and they lied to the press.
What Had Jayson Tatum And Jaylen Brown Said?
When you think about which players might have known about what happened, the names that come to mind are obviously Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Interestingly, the two were quite vocal about not getting all the details about the situation. Tatum was the one who said the players were in the dark about the Udoka scandal.
“Uh, it was confusing. Even to this day, there’s so much that — I guess for legal reasons — they can’t explain. So it’s like a vague situation, and there’s a lot of things they felt like they couldn’t say. So it kind of left a lot of us in the dark. You see things on the internet. You don’t know what is true, what’s not true, what to believe. It’s just an unfortunate situation.”
As for his co-star, Brown said a lot of information about the Udoka scandal had not been shared with them.
“I wish we had more details. From what we know, it’s hard to make a decision based on whether it’s consensual or not in the workplace, which we know has happened before in the workplace. It looks like there is more to it than what meets the eye.”
The notion at the time was that all everyone knew was that Udoka got suspended for violating the team’s code of conduct by entering into that relationship. No other details were shared, but if we go by what Udoka said, some of the players knew exactly what had happened.
It Was Not A Happy Return To Boston For Ime Udoka
As for what happened when Udoka’s Houston Rockets took on the Celtics, it wasn’t a pretty sight. The Celtics blew them out 145-113 to drop the Rockets to 19-19 on the season.
The biggest strength for Houston this season has been their defense, but they allowed the Celtics to shoot 53.7% from the field and 51.1% from beyond the arc here. Brown led the way for Boston with 32 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks.
Tatum, meanwhile, had 27 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block, but got assessed with two technicals in the fourth quarter, which led to his ejection. Regardless, the Celtics improved to 30-9 with the win, and Udoka might be wondering what might have been had he stayed out of trouble and never lost the job.
We sincerely appreciate and respect you as a reader of our site. It would help us a lot if you follow us on Google News because of the latest update.
Thanks for following us. We really appreciate your support.
