This must be some new math shit because none of this adds up. Evidently, Ime Udoka had a “consensual relationship with a female staff member” and is now going to be suspended for a full season by the Celtics. Not the NBA, not pending a legal investigation. Straight up suspended for a consensual relationship.
This is an evolving situation, but there’s gotta be a big piece of the story missing if Wyc and Co. felt the need to suspend their coach for an entire season. Three months ago Ime lead this team to Game 6 of the NBA Finals with largely the same squad that now GM Brad Stevens failed to reach the Final with in 4 tries. Ime was able to get the whole team on the same page, including Marcus Smart, which is no small accomplishment considering how the team was trending when he took over. I outlined the challenges the team was facing the other day but didn’t make a single reference to coaching being a problem. In fact, I considered coaching to be a strongpoint entering this season. Ime seemed to be well-liked by the players, which is so rare in the NBA amongst elite teams, and for the first time since the late 2000s, the Boston Celtics were the favorites to win the NBA title.
That’s all out the window now.
Head coaching in the NBA is more about ego-management and blocking outside noise from your team and your stars as much has it is about X’s and O’s. Tyronn Lue winning a championship as a head coach is all the proof I need to back that statement up. What are the odds the next Celtics head coach, reportedly Joe Missoulla, can keep this team with sky-high expectations focused the way that Ime did? Add in this monumental distraction and I’ll put the odds somewhere around 0.0.
This is such a pivotal year for the Celtics with a potential contract dispute on the horizon with Jaylen Brown, and the buy-in from Tatum is still strong but not guaranteed moving forward. The proverbial championship window is open, but for how long, nobody knows.
This is all a long-winded way of saying there has to be more to this story than we know as of now, 1:11 PM on 9/22. For the Celtics to throw such a massive monkey wrench into the equation on the eve of training camp. What that is, I have no idea but I’ll toss out a few guesses.
Guess #1: The other person in this consensual relationship is the significant other of a member of the Celtics brass. Brad Steven’s wife? Wyc’s wife? The emotions involved would explain the seemingly over-the-top suspension.
Guess #2: Ime and the other culprit were repeatedly told to knock this shit off and they didn’t. This introduces the element of direct defiance into the equation.
Guess #3: The husband/boyfriend of the girl Ime was canoodling with escalated this. Potentially threatened to go to the media and rat out everybody that knew about it but did nothing to stop it. Perhaps there was a physical altercation between Ime and the husband/boyfriend or at least the threat of violence.
I really have no idea. What I do know, though, is there BETTER be more to this story than a workplace romance for the Celtics to feel the need to suspend a successful coach that their star players liked for a full season. This story isn’t going away and Celtics players will face hundreds of questions about Ime and the new coaching staff throughout the year, so the crime better fit the punishment.