Ime Udoka suspended for the 22-23 season
- Thread starter RedOctober3829
- Start date
Exactly. We're between games 2 and 3 post-suspension. The Celtics won't be taking some groundbreaking new position. Officially Ime is suspended and Joe is interim.
When something changes, then there will be news.
In the Celtics perfect world they'll have a win streak and Mazz will be generating some positive press. Ime will be quietly severed. Nobody will bat an eyelash.
Did this bit of information include that ridiculous “BREAKING NEWS” graphic Woj tweets out?
No, it was on the pregame. It was not in the context of a Woj bomb....just saying the obvious, with (to me at least) that the Celtics won't stand in the way of him getting a new job. That tells me that the issue is very personal to the Celtics organization.
It speaks so incredibly well to the Celtics organization that this woman’s name hasn’t leaked in 5 weeks. TMZ and similar have undoubtedly flipped over every rock possible to out her. This is next to impossible in today’s world.
I was thinking the same thing. I'm stunned that we don't have the details yet, and it's a huge credit to the Cs.
In depth piece on Long with some quotes about Ime and some harsh words for Celtics management...
View: https://twitter.com/THR/status/1598389538921086983
Nia Long recently walked off a set for the first time in her 36-year career and says she knew it needed to be done “because it didn’t feel good in my belly”
View: https://twitter.com/THR/status/1598389538921086983
Nia Long recently walked off a set for the first time in her 36-year career and says she knew it needed to be done “because it didn’t feel good in my belly”
Shitting on the team for what happened and making it about yourself is a take, I guess. Does the article mention who was holding the gun to her head while making the very private situation even more public?
How do you make something public…..”even more public?” It’s already out in the wide open.
Maybe not "more public" in a literal sense, but duelling headlines certainly keeps the game going. As opposed to politely declining interviews regarding the situation and asking for privacy while your family works through events. Happens quite a lot, actually.
People also have used these interviews as a form of healing. I don’t begrudge her for doing what she feels is best for her. It’s obvious that she has a lot of anger toward the Celtics handling of the situation and wanted to get it off her chest.
Whatever. If she's (understandably) angry about what happened, her aim sucks. Anyone who thinks that the team should have reached out to her directly during that shit show is delusional, and they're hardly to be faulted for things becoming "public" once they decided to suspend Ime.
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How does the employer of a person who violated a conduct policy reach out to their partner in practice? What attorney would advise this? What could the Celtics offer?
@P'tucket rhymes with... is right. Its completely understandable that Long is upset but the Cs were victims as well. The anger seems misplaced.
@P'tucket rhymes with... is right. Its completely understandable that Long is upset but the Cs were victims as well. The anger seems misplaced.
Agree with this completely. She doesn’t seem to understand that the Celtics are being instructed to NOt reach out to her. I still don’t begrudge her for venting from the embarrassment she’s faced but it shouldn’t be toward the Celtics. She isn’t acting rational…..but under the circumstances it should be understandable by a reasonable person.
Also, organization could mean players or front office. She may be upset about the players not reaching out (if they didn't), people she may have developed a personal relationship with. Not sure though. Can't imagine she was expecting Brad or Wyc to give her a call.
Man, I would not want that to come up in any kind of potential litigation. "Mr. Smart/Brown/Tatum/Kornet, can you tell us why you were texting Ms. Long after finding our her husband cheated on her?"
Exactly. There would only be downside for anyone to reach out. Really sucks she had to endure this but the organization was never going to reach out to her during all of this.
I hate to say this, but Long's anger really does seem misplaced here. Udoka did something inappropriate at work, his employers investigated, determined he was at fault and meted out the punishment accordingly. If he was single, this would have been just as bad. What was she expecting the Celtics to do, ignoring for a minute that I am sure lawyers told the Celts not to reach out? Apologize? If so, for what? For taking action against their employee for behaving inappropriately? For not doing a good enough job of covering up what exactly the infraction was so that people would not find out it was something that could impact her marriage?
I understand that this is a shitty situation for her - embarrassing, tough on her family, etc. But I think the biggest culprit here is Udoka and her blaming the Celtics for not seeing if she is ok is a really weird pivot.
I understand that this is a shitty situation for her - embarrassing, tough on her family, etc. But I think the biggest culprit here is Udoka and her blaming the Celtics for not seeing if she is ok is a really weird pivot.
Long should be upset that her son had to deal with the public airing of what her son’s father did, in violation of rules he agreed to when signing on as coach of the Celtics. Blaming the Celtics for how they handled the situation is misplaced. How would the Celtics sweeping this matter under the rug jibe with her moral compass if her significant other wasn’t involved?
Some interesting quotes about the Ime situation from the Jays in an article on The Athletic today:
It's still hard to tell how much the team is understanding of the situation and how much they resent it. They are also complimentary of Joe here but I think they still see Ime's contribution and what happened last year as maybe more significant. I do like Brown's attitude at the end - he seems to have put it to bed.
https://theathletic.com/3992484/2022/12/12/celtics-jayson-tatum-jaylen-brown/
It's still hard to tell how much the team is understanding of the situation and how much they resent it. They are also complimentary of Joe here but I think they still see Ime's contribution and what happened last year as maybe more significant. I do like Brown's attitude at the end - he seems to have put it to bed.
Evidence that there is still true confusion. They've been asked to trust the team, but in the process lost a coach who they really respected and whom were really close to. Ime got them to the Finals; Joe got them to December with the NBA's best record, so there is naturally going to be a feeling that Ime accomplished more last year than Joe has this season.
It's clear that Ime had a great relationship with the players, a relationship that took time and trials and tribulations to build. The good news is that the players are willing to give Mazzulla the same opportunity to build the same relationship, but it will take its own time and trials and tribulations as well.
Mazzulla already had the relationships with these players as he was there prior to Ime and now is going on his 4th year here. Players are also often times closer to the assistants who are doing much of the hands on work with them. It is a truly unique transition.
I’m a little surprised Ime, apparently, hasn’t told them much, if anything, since. The Celtics need to tight lipped, and obviously, Ime should be, but I might have expected him to defend himself a bit to the players he was close to.
I don’t disagree. I’m just a little surprised he hasn’t at all tried to spin things with the players who, I assume, he is close with. Has he had zero contact with them in months? Again, might have expected something
I think if you combine @lexrageorge ’s post and mine, this actually suggests that he really, really needs to not talk to anyone about what happened.
Like, I dunno what happened, but what you describe doesn’t strike me as weird, it strikes me as meaning that he really fucked up, i.e. there is a reason for that lack of contact, and the reason must be significant. And, if so, as a top coach on the market, he has a lot to lose and should be grateful the Celtics have information on lock-down (which is still kinda mind blowing how effective they’ve been at that—which is in its own way suggestive of magnitude).
Surprised it wasn’t in this thread earlier, but People magazine reported on 12/6 that Long and Udoka have split (they’d been engaged since 2015).
It's a reasonable explanation. In the immediate aftermath, there was an attempt by his agents through some media mouthpieces as the Celtics just being Puritanical about violating silly rules around workplace fraternization. Maybe that occurred because his agents didn't actually know what had happened.
If there was some threat of real, criminal consequences for his actions - I could certainly see that as a huge motivation for him not to say anything at all. But, I don't think we've heard any suggestion that is the case.
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At this point, its probably safe to assume that Udoka is staying quiet because he has very strong incentives to do so. Its reasonable to assume that he would want to reach out to the players he has coached as well as his network. But again, at what cost?
If there's any chance that any actions like contacting the players could be used by the FO as leverage to opt out of paying the rest of his contract, he'd be nuts to reach out to them. It's a lot of money, the likes of which he would not get as head coach of Murray State or an NBA assistant.
Word. But I didn’t mean criminal per se. Like @DeJesus Built My Hotrod and @Jimbodandy said, it seems like it could be some other cost. And given the behavior, it almost assuredly is; heck, the Celtics wouldn’t likely cover up a crime for the guy, yeah?
In addition to his contract money that @Jimbodandy points out, I assume he wants another job in the league, right? Well, there are only 29 other teams out there, and there are plenty of non-prudish reasons to not want tall, charming, brazen womanizers around. Like, how many guys here want to see their wives or girlfriends chatting with Ime Udoka at the company Christmas party?
I guess it's not surprising that Ime got an invite to the SoSH Christmas party. Wonder who he will bring as his +1.
In addition to financial reasons and wanting to hold out for another NBA job he may be embarrassed and remorseful for the harm he has caused others. He and Nia Long had been together for 13 years. I'm not sure how quickly a person bounces back from that. Hopefully he is taking care of himself and getting his shit together.
In addition to financial reasons and wanting to hold out for another NBA job he may be embarrassed and remorseful for the harm he has caused others. He and Nia Long had been together for 13 years. I'm not sure how quickly a person bounces back from that. Hopefully he is taking care of himself and getting his shit together.
Listening to Bill Simmons and Jacoby mentioned Ime as one of the most surprising storylines of the season. Especially how he hasn't come on with another team, probably with the league office urging a "cooling off" period this season. Would tend to agree given the utter lack of clarity on this story all of these months later. We still don't really know what happened here, do we?
View: https://mobile.twitter.com/wojespn/status/1650611988916060160
Can you coach the Nets, Raptors, and Rockets at the same time? Woj is such a water carrier.
Can you coach the Nets, Raptors, and Rockets at the same time? Woj is such a water carrier.
To clarify, Woj has worked PR for Ime from last summer all the way through to him landing this job.
True dat, with an assist from Stephen A Smith who successfully managed to change the narrative of the reasons behind the suspension in the minds of the most NBA fans.
one thing that baffles me is the people on Celtics twitter who think we'd be so much better off with Ime.... I think it's his macho tough guy posturing, because....
We had a better record with Mazzula... Tatum had his career best season, Jaylen had a career best season, Derrick White had a career best season, Joe turned Hauser into a real NBA rotation player, they finished with the best net rating in the league by a signficant margin..... this year's team is a lot better than last year's, and it isn't just adding Brogdon.
We had a better record with Mazzula... Tatum had his career best season, Jaylen had a career best season, Derrick White had a career best season, Joe turned Hauser into a real NBA rotation player, they finished with the best net rating in the league by a signficant margin..... this year's team is a lot better than last year's, and it isn't just adding Brogdon.
Didn’t Mazzulla get credit for the Boston defensive schemes last season?
He certainly put his imprint on this season’s offense.
Who turned down the Houston job prior to Ime? I felt he was always going to be the top coach available on the market or at worst one of the top 2-3 and would have a job by summer.
Agreed. He built up a significant bank of cred in his single season as HC. I’m sure Houston has had plenty of time to perform due diligence and draft the appropriate contract. But Ime absolutely must be on his best behavior in Houston, or he will run out of chances quickly.
I mean good for him for getting another shot but also fuck him for putting a great situation with the Cs at risk with his terrible judgment. I'm happy he's in the Western Conference so I don't have to think of him too much.
They weren't very interesting this season. I mean, I will get some joy watching Ime scream and bench KPJ but my bar for what entertains is lower than Spud Webb.