Ime Udoka came to Boston under bizarre circumstances. The sudden retirement (however brief) of Danny Ainge and elevation of Brad Stevens to President of Basketball Operations created the opportunity for Udoka to land the head coaching job he’d been coveting for years.
Fifteen months later, Udoka is out, at least for one season, because of an improper affair with a team staffer.
Stevens and Wyc Grousbeck sat somberly at the team’s practice facility, explaining how Udoka violated the team’s value and culture. Details about Udoka’s transgressions are still lacking, but Grousbeck did reveal there were “multiple violations, there were a couple violations at least.”
Reports are starting to surface that add some level of context to the affair. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, “Some members of the Celtics organization first became aware of the relationship in July, sources said. At that time, team leadership was led to believe by both parties that the relationship was consensual. But sources said that the woman recently accused Udoka of making unwanted comments toward her — leading the team to launch a set of internal interviews.”
Today, Grousbeck added some clarity to that, saying “As soon as we learned there was a potential situation, we immediately brought in a respected law firm to conduct a thorough investigation and impartial investigation. And they took some time, and we actually concluded that investigation with a report two days ago. So that's the reason for the timing here.”
No one besides Udoka is facing any discipline from the team. The NBA is also not involved in the investigation.
The Celtics spent time Friday morning defending their team and office culture in light of Udoka’s actions, seemingly going to great lengths to separate themselves from other recent stories involving the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks. Suns owner Robert Sarver was suspended for a year and fined $10 million for racist and misogynistic actions. The Mavericks were disciplined in 2018 amid accusations of sexual misconduct in the workplace.
“My personal belief … is that we go to great lengths or appropriate lengths at least to run the organization with the core value of respect and freedom in the workplace from harassment or any unwelcome attention,” Grousbeck said. “Isolated incidents or patterns if they occur may be isolated or they may be a deeper signal. I personally don’t believe that they’re a deeper signal. But I will be personally talking to members of the organization to make sure that that’s the case. This feels very much to me like this was one of a kind. This is my personal belief, but I’ll have to verify that.”
When news of this first broke, many Twitter users took it upon themselves to try to figure out who was involved in the affair with Udoka. That led to online harassment of women who had nothing to do with the situation. Stevens, normally composed, could barely hold back his emotions discussing this with reporters at the Auerbach Center.
“We have a lot of talented women in our organization and I thought yesterday was really hard on them,” he said. “I think that nobody can control Twitter speculation, rampant bullshit. But I do think we as an organization have a responsibility to make sure we’re there to support them now, because a lot of people were dragged unfairly into that.”
“A lot of people were dragged into that unfairly.”
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) September 23, 2022
Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens had some strong feelings about the female staffers being dragged into the social media conversation. pic.twitter.com/Q2IvR7VGeZ
Questions have been swirling about whether the punishment fit the crime, but the team defended the unprecedented season-long suspension.
“I personally feel that this is well warranted and appropriate, backed by substantial research and evidence and facts,” Grousbeck said. “I'm standing by the decision and Ime has accepted it, and has expressed, in fact, appreciation -- I don’t want to belabor that -- but he’s been accepting of it and he’s planning to move forward on this basis.”
While the team struggles with the internal ramifications of this scandal, they are still in the business of playing professional basketball, something that will begin in earnest with Tuesday’s first official practice of the season. That practice will be run by new interim head coach, Joe Mazzulla.
“It's not an easy timing for him or the rest of the staff. But he's an exceptionally sharp and talented person,” Stevens said. “I believe strongly in him and his ability to lead people, his ability to galvanize a room and get behind him.”
While Grousbeck admitted he did have a discussion with Stevens about returning to the bench, that idea was shot down quickly by Stevens. When asked if there was a scenario where he’d end up coaching the team, he said “absolutely not.” The team may add another assistant coach to the staff, but Stevens threw his support behind the people already on the bench.
The players, meanwhile, are also in a tough position. They spent a season building a level of trust with Udoka, and now, just days before a season full of championship promise, they have to make their run with a new head coach.
“To think that guys on the team or coaches or anybody else in the organization can just walk back out on the court and everything is fine is not the way it is,” Stevens said. “I just think that this is a really, really tough situation but we are going to be forward-focused with addressing what we need to address to get everybody ready to go on Tuesday to start a new season. I believe we will be but I'm not going to ignore the fact that there are human emotions all over the place.”
The shockwave of this news is still growing, and there will be more details that leak in the coming days, especially in media outlets that specialize in salacious. Players are going to be hit with new information about a coach who, at least for now, is in limbo with the organization. There is a timeline that exists where Udoka is back on the sidelines a year from now, no matter how unlikely that seems at the moment.
For now, the team has unfinished business to tend to. This is mostly the same team that went to the NBA Finals just a few months ago. It’s a team that still employs Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. There is a dark cloud over the franchise and now a sudden learning curve with a new guy driving the bus, but there is still a lot of hope for successful season.
“I'm really confident in the team and the coaching staff that's gonna take the court on Tuesday,” Stevens said. “It's not what we expected to have happened, but I'm very confident.”
