In the wake of reports suggesting the Brooklyn Nets will indeed hire Ime Udoka as the organization’s next head coach following the Steve Nash departure, two former Boston Celtics legends from the 2008 NBA Finals-winning squad reacted.
Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, now retired following their Hall of Fame careers, both discussed the expected hiring of last season’s Celtics head coach during an episode of SHOWTIME Basketball’s “KG Certified: The Ticket & The Truth.”
“Man, he showed that he’s one of the bright, young coaches in the league,” Pierce said. “And he’s been there before. So he has a relationship with the players. … I’m sure Brooklyn doing their due diligence. At this point, you deal with what happened within the organization. Did he do anything illegal? No. But it’s also morals that comes in with an organization. … You just have to move on, put it behind him, and hopefully, everybody can do the same.”
Pierce added: “If I’m Brooklyn, I would wait until the year is up. … Stay with an interim coach. See what Jacque Vaughn can do. Cause it’s hard to bring in a new coach here and have a voice and change a system or go with what already they was doing. It just don’t make sense to me.”
Garnett, who played alongside Pierce — both with the Celtics and Nets — agreed with his former teammate in regards to how Brooklyn should approach their current head coaching situation.
“I actually think that Brooklyn should stay with the interim,” Garnett said. “I actually think that they’re actually going to make some moves. I would hate to actually break this up, but I think the writing’s on the wall. If you don’t go with a new coach, I think you wait to the end of the year (Paul), it’s gonna be really bad.”
As of Saturday, the Nets have yet to officially announce the hiring of Udoka. Brooklyn currently holds a 3-6 record.
