Stephen A. Smith is correct.
There are a lot of white people in professional sports and media that are having office affairs and consensual work relationships. It is rampant at ESPN; if you don’t believe me read the book “Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN,” and you will be amazed by what you read.
It should be noted that while Stephen A. is upset that Ime Udoka’s issues have become front-page news, his colleague at ESPN, Adrian Wojnarowski, broke the news late last night. It is possible someone else would have done it eventually, but the facts are that ESPN broke it first.
The question then becomes how much we should, as media, report and how much fans should know about what is happening behind closed doors in people’s relationships.
The issue with Udoka is that he will be punished for his actions.
Here is what he is accused of doing.
The reason is that it simply wasn’t an office affair. Rumors are that Udoka was having relationships with married Celtics staffers. That wouldn’t be a big deal if they were married to a plumber, but in one case, it is being reported the woman is married to the Celtics Sr. Vice President of Finance Patrick Lynch. As you can imagine, that didn’t go over well when the affair was uncovered. Udoka was given an opportunity to end all his affairs quietly but chose not to.
A Celtics staffer Kathleen Nimmo Lynch deleted all her social media a few days before the story broke.
These affairs seem to be why Udoka and Nia Long have separated. Udoka has considered resigning, but it looks like the Celtics will suspend him for at least half, if not the entire, season.
If you suspend a head coach that just took a team to the NBA Finals for an entire season, people will want to know why. It will be interesting to see how much information the Celtics release and what else may come out.
Flip the pages for Stephen A’s rant and some of the Twitter reactions.