The Boston Celtics got their guy.
The team on Monday announced the hire of Ime Udoka as the 18th head coach of the franchise, and shortly after, he joined Brad Stevens and other Celtics executives in addressing the media for the first time as a head coach.
The nerves were pretty apparent in Udoka, though.
The former Brooklyn Nets assistant was the Celtics’ first choice among qualified candidates, and vice-versa, as both sides made clear. His first media availability wasn’t exactly groundbreaking, but the journeyman assistant never has really had to be polished for media interviews to this point.
But don’t let Monday lead you to believe he won’t be able to command a room. It’s one of the things that sold ownership on him so quickly.
“Two hours went by in a flash I was ready to go a couple more, ready to be stuck on a coast-to-coast red eye next to him, you know? It just was that kind of electricity. He’s so confident,” Wyc Grousbeck said.
Every word about his confidence is believable.
Udoka got increasingly more comfortable as the press conference went on, his voice remaining a consistent volume, feeling edgy enough to chirp Stevens for the Celtics’ assist numbers last season. Not to mention, he’s about to marry actress Nia Long, which tells us everything we need to know about Udoka. That’s an alpha move, and it looks like he gets what he wants.
He mentioned the Celtics job was the most desirable on the market, and now it’s his. We hope that translates to an 18th banner.
But right now, as the Portland Trail Blazers and Dallas Mavericks get roasted for bringing controversial figures like Chauncey Billups and Jason Kidd, respectively, to take them to the promised land, we’re happy with the safe choice Boston made giving Udoka his first shot.
We’ll see if it was the right one in due time.
Here are some other notes from Monday’s press conference:
— A criticism of Stevens as coach was that he couldn’t get the Celtics to “buy in” this season. NESN.com wasn’t able to get in a question about what shortcomings the now-president of basketball operations saw in himself as a coach that Stevens wanted to find in a successor. But we’ll read between the lines that Boston wanted a former player that its stars would respect.
“They’re going to allow me to coach them, push them, they know I’m going to be on their ass, and that’s what they like about me,” Udoka said of the players. “They’ve asked me about that. They want to be pushed, they want to be directed towards winning, and you expect that from your stars. The character they’ve shown.
“We have a willing group, and they only reiterated that with myself in our conversations lately. So looking forward to it, I’m not worried about our group worrying about hard coaching. They are asking for that, and it’s something I’m going to bring to the table.”
— Based on all accounts heard Monday, Udoka’s first time sitting down with the Celtics was pivotal for both parties.
He and Stevens sat down with team governors Wyc Grousbeck and Steve Pagliuca as well as director of player development Allison Feaster, and a seamlessly flowing conversation got everyone on the same path.
Udoka saw right away what Boston’s vision for the future is, and that the ownership group is comprised of “basketball guys.” After meeting him, Grousbeck said the decision to hire Udoka was pretty simple.
— There was a lot of talk about the “two young pillars” the Celtics boast on their roster, but Marcus Smart, the longest tenured player, has a close relationship with Udoka as well from their time with Team USA ahead of the 2019-20 season.
Based on that, and the fact that Stevens (who has never been shy in his praise for Smart) has transitioned to a team-building role as president of basketball operations, we’re going to call it a safe bet that Boston plans to keep Smart around as things currently stand.
We’ll see though.
