Boston Celtics’ players ‘never got over Ime Udoka’s dismissal’ in the wake of his affair with colleague and thought it was a ‘wild overreaction’ to fire him – as team face prospect of getting dumped out of NBA playoffs tonight
- Udoka’s firing didn’t go over well with the rest of the Celtics locker room
- Now, Boston faces the disgrace of a sweep to the play-in winning Miami Heat
- DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports news
A tumultuous start to the season for the Boston Celtics may have set them up for eventual failure in the playoffs after the firing of Ime Udoka.
Before the season even began, Udoka was dismissed by the Celtics after it was revealed that he had an inappropriate relationship with a female member of the organization.
That left Boston in the hands of then-assistant coach Joe Mazzula, who went on to lead the Celtics to the second best record in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.
But none of that regular season success matters now as Boston is preparing itself for a brutal defeat at the hands of the Miami Heat – the eight seed in the East – as the Celtics face a 3-0 deficit in the series.
Related Post
It’s led many to point fingers and ESPN’s NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski says the issues may have been present since the start of the 2022-23 campaign.
Adrian Wojnarowski says the Celtics locker room never got over the firing of Ime Udoka
Now with Joe Mazzulla at the helm, the second-seed Celtics could get swept out of the playoffs
‘This team, this locker room, they never got over Ime Udoka’s dismissal as head coach,’ Woj explained. ‘These players did not accept the organization’s reasoning for doing it. They thought it was a wild overreaction.
‘There were a lot of people on the outside who thought it was an overreaction, it was an HR matter… Talking with management, I think they felt they never got the answers – [or] they [never] got any more answers than the public was getting on this.
‘Now, that doesn’t mean they haven’t accepted Joe Mazzulla as head coach, but this is a team that really believed in Ime Udoka, had a strong connection with him.
‘I think there were a couple of instances this season where a lot of that angst resurfaced, first when the Brooklyn Nets nearly hired Udoka as head coach and then when the Rockets did.’
Woj says another factor that could play into why the Celtics are struggling is their lack of experience in the coaching staff beyond Mazzulla.
‘[Mazzulla] was hired, promoted as the interim coach only seven days before training camp. He didn’t have a chance to add any assistants right away before the season.
‘They talked with Frank Vogel. They talked with Jay Larranaga with the Clippers. This was a young coaching staff. They had lost Will Hardy to the Utah Jazz as their head coach.
‘And knowing that this team [had] championship aspirations… ownership, perhaps [should’ve been] spending more money to make sure they got somebody there.
After Boston released Udoka, he flirted with joining Brooklyn before settling on Houston
Boston now has the tough task of trying to overcome a 3-0 deficit, which has never been done
‘Then remember, they lose Damon Stoudamire, Mazzulla’s top assistant to Georgia Tech as a head coach in March.
‘Now you are in the postseason, not just against Eric Spoelstra now, but all the championship coaches in the East.
‘This is a difficult education for a young coach. And perhaps, looking back, they should have added to that coaching staff at the time.
‘They have an opportunity to do that in the offseason. Again, these are factors in the Celtics being down. It doesn’t explain at all, but I think they’re relevant.’
Boston looks to avoid the sweep in Miami on Tuesday night.
