Ime Udoka has been under fire for a couple of weeks now after reports came out claiming he was facing a suspension by the Boston Celtics. These reports turned out to be true, and now the young coach will be removed from his position until next year, missing the entire 2022-23 NBA season.
The reason behind this was that Udoka had an improper relationship with a female member of the team staff, violating many team policies due to these actions. Now, the former player is getting a lot of hate and is still facing the consequences of his actions.
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN recently reported that it’d be hard for Udoka to return to his position at the Boston Celtics organization.
The independent law firm probe into Boston Celtics coach Ime Udoka found that he used crude language in his dialogue with a female subordinate prior to the start of an improper workplace relationship with the woman, an element that significantly factored into the severity of his one-year suspension, sources told ESPN on Friday.
Those investigative findings — which described verbiage on Udoka’s part that was deemed especially concerning coming from a workplace superior — contribute to what is likely a difficult pathway back to his reinstatement as Celtics coach in 2023, sources told ESPN.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the Celtics might not be the only NBA franchise to close the door to Udoka.
Rival Teams Are Cautious About Hiring Ime Udoka’s
Wojnarowski adds that the Celtics aren’t against the idea of Ime leaving the team if a coaching job gets opened at a different place. However, rival teams want to understand the whole situation to see if it’s worth it to offer Udoka a new job in the league.
At a news conference last week, Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck said the suspension — which extends through June 30, 2023 — was a product of multiple violations of team policies, and sources told ESPN the Celtics won’t stand in Udoka’s way should he have the chance to become a coaching candidate elsewhere. There are teams that have tried to gather a preliminary understanding of the full explanation for Udoka’s suspension in preparation for possibly evaluating him for future coaching employment, sources told ESPN.
Right now, Joe Mazzulla is the Celtics’ head coach for next season. Udoka has reportedly shut down the notion that he’s leaving the Celtics this season and will presumably wait for his yearlong suspension to be over to take over the team and continue what he started last season.
Nevertheless, this seems to be an unlikely possibility right now, but perhaps things will change in one year, and the Celtics will welcome Ime again. Then again, Matt Barnes recently said that once all the details of this scandal saw the light, it would be really hard for Udoka to coach in the NBA again.
