On Wednesday night, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and The Athletic’s Shams Charania dropped a bombshell report involving Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka.
Per the reports, Udoka had a consensual intimate relationship with a woman who is a member of Boston’s staff. That relationship was considered a violation of the Celtics’ guidelines.
Although it has not been finalized yet, the expectation is that Udoka will be suspended by the Celtics for the entire 2022-23 season.
For the most part, the sports world believes this suspension for Udoka is too harsh.
“I don’t condone cheating, but A YEAR for a consensual affair seems veryyyyy hefty,” Ashley Nicole Moss of Sports Illustrated said. “There has to be missing pieces to this story because that’s again, a lot.”
“A longer suspension for a consensual relationship than if he had sexually assaulted scores of women,” David P. Sampson of CBS Sports said. “Bet he wishes he were a quarterback in the NFL and not a coach in the NBA.”
In his first season as the head coach of the Celtics, Udoka owned a 51-31 record. He led the team to an NBA Finals appearance.
According to Wojnarowski, the Celtics are most likely going to name assistant coach Joe Mazzulla their interim coach for this upcoming season.