Ime Udoka will remain under contract with the Boston Celtics, well, at least for the time being.
Udoka, who was suspended by the Celtics for the 2022-23 campaign, was viewed as a frontrunner to land the Brooklyn Nets head coaching job after the franchise mutually parted ways with Steve Nash on Nov. 1. The Nets, however, announced Wednesday that Brooklyn will go in a different direction and hire Jacque Vaughn for the position.
So while that means the suspended Celtics coach will not be departing Boston as quickly as last week’s reports might have indicated, ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski still believes Udoka will not remain with the franchise over the long term. It’s read that way ever since Udoka was suspended for multiple violations of workplace misconduct, which according to reports, stemmed from an “improper relationship” with a female staffer as Udoka made “unwanted comments” to said employee.
“Listen, I think, with the initial reporting and the reporting we did on the circumstances around his suspension and essentially ouster in Boston, that he will coach again in the NBA,” Wojnarowski said Wednesday on ESPN, per Talkin’ NBA on Twitter. “He may coach as soon as, if not this season, somewhere else next season. I think plenty of teams, just in preparation, have started to do their due diligence on the Udoka situation. Certainly Brooklyn did.”
Wojnarowski also hinted how ongoing controversy surrounding the Nets, and specifically Kyrie Irving, played a role in Udoka not being offered the job. Irving currently is suspended by the team as the Nets deemed him “unfit” to be a part of the organization after his social media promotion of a film with anti-Semitic ideologies.
Wojnarowski is not the only one to speculate how Irving’s situation ultimately played a role in Udoka not landing the job.
“And I think for Brooklyn, there was nobody telling Brooklyn that they could not hire Ime Udoka,” Wojnarowski said on ESPN. “They made a decision about what made sense for them with this timing. I think under different conditions, I think very good chance, almost certainly, Ime Udoka would have been the Nets coach. And I think other organizations in the league, based on the success he had in Boston last year, I think they’re really looking into the situation there (and) do not see his suspension as disqualifying from him coaching somewhere else.”
