In turmoil since the revelation of his “extra-marital and consented relationship” with a member of the Boston franchise staff, Ime Udoka was under a heavy sanction from the Celtics. Penalty that fell last night: the Greens coach is suspended for the entire 2022-23 season!
Just yesterday morning, just after the revelations that fell shortly before, the question was raised as to what sanction would be imposed on the Boston coach for his violation of the Celtics’ franchise code of conduct. It’s now official, we won’t see Ime Udoka on the NBA benches this season. As noted by major insiders overnight, the 45-year-old has been suspended for the entirety of the upcoming campaignwhich obviously represents a real earthquake for this Boston team which remained on a participation in the Finals against the Warriors at the end of Udoka’s first season on the bench.
The Boston Celtics have suspended head coach Ime Udoka for the entire 2022-23 season.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 23, 2022
If Ime therefore avoided the dismissal scenario, it is a very firm sanction from the Celtics. Very firm but necessary in the eyes of the Boston franchise to 1) show that this kind of behavior cannot be accepted within the organization 2) ensure that the suspension is severe enough so that the C’s can then completely rotate the page once it is purged. Because the best way for this kind of business to continue to hover over the franchise is not to take the necessary measures at the moment T. So even if for some it may seem very hard knowing that Ime Udoka did not attack anyone in the case, his status and his responsibilities within the team force the Celtics to be intransigent.
It will inevitably blow some people away, and that’s normal, but it’s image and PR. When you are a representative and public figure of a team / league / institution, yes there are lines not to cross under penalty of being labelled.
Bonus in Puritan America.
— TrashTalk (@TrashTalk_fr) September 22, 2022
So what’s next for Boston? According to Adrian Wojnarowski, the Celtics will start on Joe Mazzulla to take control of the group for the coming season. As we already underlined yesterday when his name was mentioned among the candidates for the (temporary) succession of Udoka, Mazzulla is young and inexperienced at the height of his 34 years. He joined the Celtics in 2019 as an assistant coach when Brad Stevens was still on the bench before stepping into the office, and remained on the staff when Ime arrived in the 2021 offseason. head coach who literally falls on him, can Joe Mazzulla keep the Greens at the top of an increasingly competitive Eastern Conference? It’s bound to be tense for him, especially since the Celtics could evolve without Robert Williams III at the start of the season and they still haven’t replaced Danilo Gallinari after his big knee injury. All that to say that we had an easier first job as a head coach…
Sacred rebound in Boston a few days before the start of training camps and less than a month before the first regular season game. Considered one of the big favorites for the 2023 NBA title, the Celtics will now have to move forward without the same certainties they thought they had. And it could be expensive given the competition in the East…
Source texte : ESPN