He's in the same place he'd be for the indefinite future if there were no first leak to Woj, except he got the advantage of the story looking better for him for 3/4 of a day and the advantage that lots of people remember the first story they hear about an incident, and don't really pay as much attention to follow up stories.
Again, who does the first leak look better for? Ime, or any other party in the matter?
No, again to repeat...there is no requirement that Ime's situation was announced as "suspended a year for consensual sexual relationship" There were other ways they could have announced it and positioned it. Those are what I am talking about.
If you assume (I think wrongly) that they had to announce it the way the first leak read, then sure...that's better framing for Ime than the later Shams article. But I don't see any reason at all to assume that is the case. And thus, that he must have been the leaker.
Here's the statement of the Timberwolves when they fired Rosas:
"Today the Minnesota Timberwovles parted ways with President of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas. As an organization, we remain committed to building a winning team that our fans and city can be proud of.”
Are we sure Ime wouldn't today be better off if that were the first we heard about all this? Of course there would be questions (as there were about Rosas) and likely other stuff would come out. I can imagine the team thought better to soften the ground; can also see why they might not have wanted the leak.
If I were Ime's agent I'd probably prefer something like this, if you can get team to go along:
"Today the celtics announce that Ime Udoka is going to be taking an indefinite leave of absence to attend to personal matters. We do not expect him to return during the 2022-2023 season. We support Ime and his family and look forward to a successful season for the Boston Celtics"
If you were Ime, would you rather have that out there or the last 24 hours?