When the news surrounding Celtics head coach Ime Udoka first dropped on Wednesday night, it was as puzzling as it was vague.
Udoka, who took the team to the NBA Finals in his first year as the Celtics’ head coach, was reportedly set to be suspended for the entire 2022-23 season for violating team policies.
That was about the only concrete information we had at the time thanks to NBA insiders Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania.
The other part of the report was that the suspension was due to some sort of consensual relationship between Udoka and a female team staffer, which the team had policies prohibiting or limiting.
Because of the unclarity of the news, and because it had the feeling of something more serious on the horizon, we chose not to report on it.
And we’re glad we did because over the next two days, the situation escalated dramatically.
Yet two days later, we’re all still in the dark as to what actually happened.
After the flame was ignited on Wednesday evening, it was fanned by the Celtics team statement on Thursday evening.
“The Boston Celtics announced today that the team has suspended Head Coach Ime Udoka for the 2022-23 season for violations of team policies. A decision about his future with the Celtics beyond this season will be made at a later date. The suspension takes effect immediately,” said the team in a statement.
On Friday morning, the Celtics held a press conference in which team owner Wyc Grousbeck and President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens vaguely addressed the situation with extremely limited detail.
Both men mentioned Udoka’s remorse and acceptance of the punishment, which included the year-long suspension and a “significant” financial penalty.
They also directed their frustration and anger towards those who targeted female team employees in an attempt to identify the woman involved with Udoka.
“We, as an organization, have a responsibility to make sure we’re there to support them now [female Celtics’ employees] because a lot of people were dragged unfairly into that,” said Stevens.
The two men informed everyone that the investigation actually began in the summer when the team first learned of the relationship between the two parties.
Other than that, the only other thing we learned was that “multiple violations” were committed.
In the end, the only we can do is speculate about what happened.
In all honesty, while I am curious as to what the violations were, I still feel the way that I felt on Wednesday.
I wasn’t interested in the personal affairs of Ime Udoka and the unnamed staffer then, and I’m still not interested now.
But what is as disturbing as is shady is how it was leaked, why it was leaked and why the Celtics suspended Udoka instead of firing him.
If it was that serious, which apparently it was as they had to hire a legal firm to investigate and then ultimately imposed a hefty fine and suspended him for the year, then they should have fired him.
Instead, they benched Udoka with the option to put him back into play next year.
That’s head scratching.
The situation is so bizarre that it caused Stephen A. Smith and Malika Andrews to get into a slight dust-up on ESPN First Take after the press conference.
Smith introduced the idea that the situation had racial undertones, as a Black head coach had his personal business outted, something the industry regularly experiences but keeps under wraps.
He only grew more incensed over the next few days as limited information was circulated.
It’s so strange and shady that it prompted Matt Barnes to delete his tweet on Thursday in support of Udoka and post a new video discussing his change of heart after learning what really happened.
“After finding out the facts after I spoke, I erased what I posted because this situation in Boston is deep, it’s messy, it’s one hundred times uglier than any of us thought, and that’s why I erased what I said,” said Barnes.
For Barnes to say this, it has to be bad.
And what about Nia Long, Udoka’s long-time partner and fiance? The two have a son and she moved to Boston a few weeks ago.
According to TMZ, Long was in absolute shock when the news dropped but didn’t want to be in the spotlight, so she issued a statement through her rep.
“The outpouring of love and support from family, friends and the community during this difficult time means so much to me. I ask that my privacy be respected as I process the recent events. Above all, I am a mother and will continue to focus on my children.”
As for Ime, he issued the following statement:
“I want to apologize to our players, fans, the entire Celtics organization, and my family for letting them down. I am sorry for putting the team in this difficult situation, and I accept the team’s decision. Out of respect for everyone involved, I will have no further comment.”
So aside from the fact that Ime Udoka did something, was fined for it and was suspended for a year, what have we really learned?
Nothing.
At this point, unless something criminal or disgustingly immoral arises, we should simply mind our business and let Udoka work it out.
Instead, let’s focus on more important stories such as Herm Edwards allegedly being backstabbed before being fired and Brett Favre and others taking millions from needy families in the Mississippi welfare fraud scandal.
