Stephen A. Smith has been outspoken with how he feels the Boston Celtics bungled the situation involving former head coach Ime Udoka. And with the Celtics officially announcing Thursday that Joe Mazzulla would replace Udoka as the organization’s next head coach, Smith took to the airwaves to double and triple down on his previous sentiments.
Speaking with colleague Jay Williams on ESPN’s “First Take,” Smith expressed how he was happy Mazzulla received the upgrade in job title, though he felt it was a bit premature.
Smith’s main talking point, however, was shredding the Celtics for how the organization went about the Udoka suspension in September. Boston’s suspension brought on reports that Udoka was having an “improper” relationship with a female staffer and that he made “unwanted” comments toward the individual.
“I will never, ever deviate from my position of what they did to Ime Udoka,” Smith said Thursday. “I am not absolving him from anything that he may have done. The fact of the matter is he’s been very smart to disappear because there is no defense for what he has appeared to do. That is separate and a part from what (everything) is all about.”
Smith went on to express the same view point he’s had since the suspension, stating the Celtics could have fired Udoka rather than dragging him through the mud and sharing how similar things happen with “white, male executives” behind closed doors and never get public treatment.
The fiery host, however, then took it a step further and brought up policy brutality to stress the level of “inconsistency” between Udoka’s situation and others before him.
“When you talk about Black folks and what we’re really aspiring for, what you’re talking about fair and equal treatment. Not just under the law but period,” Smith said. “No matter what may disgust us as a people, if you do to everybody what you do to us, we’re gonna go like this, ‘That’s the way it goes. That’s the way it goes.’
“When we talk about police brutality, what are we talking about here? We’re talking about the fact you see an unarmed Black man getting shot, but White folks shooting at cops, and they get arrested. Murdering folks, and they getting arrested. Getting stopped at Burger King, for crying out loud,” Smith continued. “The inequity of the treatment is what we’re talking about. Obviously, a case like this has nothing to do with the violence I just brought up but what we’re talking about (is) the inequity, the inequality, the inconsistency and the flagrant hypocrisy that exists out in this world.
“And y’all gonna sit up here and everybody just say, ‘Ime Udoka shouldn’t have done it.’ Damn right he shouldn’t have done it. Damn right, he should be fired. I’m good with it, no problem.”
It’s worth noting that Smith in October doubled down on his earlier sentiments and hypothesized the Celtics didn’t want to fire Udoka because Boston didn’t want Udoka to coach the rival Brooklyn Nets, at the time failing to acknowledge the reports that Udoka made “unwanted comments” and used “crude language” toward the staffer.
The hiring of Mazzulla reportedly has ended Udoka’s tenure in Boston as he no longer holds any position within the organization. Perhaps the situation’s conclusion will mean Smith’s talking points against the Celtics now are in the rearview as well.
