Kevin Durant and Ime Udoka are familiar with each other on an individual and personal level, despite the two just being competitors in the first round. Udoka was a Brooklyn Nets assistant coach last season and spent the summer as an assistant coach on Team USA for the Tokyo Olympics.
During their time in Tokyo, KD and Udoka would often work together. However, after Team USA clinched the Gold, the gloves came off from both parties as a recently shared video by Bleacher Report shows.
Durant was celebrating alongside Patty Mills, who had just scored 40 points in the Bronze medal game, and saw Udoka come by. As KD and Mills were talking about Mills coming to Brooklyn, KD yelled over at Udoka and said ‘there’s going to be problems for Boston’ to which Udoka just replied, ‘I’mma lock Patty’s a** up’.
"There's gonna be problems for the Boston Celtics this year"
KD trash talking Ime Udoka didn't age well 😅https://t.co/qHNUX8EnUR
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 26, 2022
Now that we saw that the Celtics are a problem for the Nets, Durant’s words are ringing extremely hollow. Udoka did what he said he would do and locked not only Mills but Durant up. However, he got almost all of 2021 to study Durant’s game up-close and is now able to scheme for the same perfectly. We have seen this with other coaches also, like Ty Lue constantly beating the Lakers because he has a defensive game plan to restrict LeBron James.
Udoka has proven his mettle as a coach and all the years as an assistant coach across teams have paid their dues. Udoka has an unrivaled understanding of the offensive talents of his opponents and has highlighted this season with fantastic defensive coordination.
KD said what he said to Udoka in competitive jest. But he for sure didn’t expect those words to ring hauntingly across the internet, as his prediction completely blew up while Udoka’s was spot on. Maybe this just motivates KD to come back next season and prove to Boston and Udoka that nobody can lock him up.
