Stephen A. Smith is here with an interesting story about why Ime Udoka never got fired from the Boston Celtics after having relations with a staff member of the team and going against the team’s policies.
BroBible got more;
Smith went on ESPN’s First Take on Tuesday and claimed that he believes the Celtics didn’t fire Udoka to keep him away from another team.
“I believe part of the reason he was suspended, but not fired, is because the Boston Celtics did not want him to end up in Brooklyn,” he Smith said. “..I believe that if Ime Udoka had been fired by the Boston Celtics, the Brooklyn Nets would have fired Steve Nash and brought that brother back. And he would be the coach for the Brooklyn Nets right now.”
Smith’s argument is not without some merit. Udoka was an assistant for the Nets during the 2020-21 season before leaving for Boston. And Nets star Kevin Durant reportedly wanted coach Steve Nash fired in the offseason.
Nia Long has wiped Ime off her social media.
Things aren’t looking good for suspended Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka in pretty much every aspect of his personal and professional life after he was found to have had an affair with a member of the Cs organization.
The prospect of Udoka ever returning to an NBA sideline in a head coaching capacity — and likely as a member of a franchise’s support staff — is not one betting on. Boston’s coach during their first NBA Finals run in 12 years is likely a one-and-one as a head coach.
As for his personal life, it appears as though the public humiliation caused by this scandal likely cost him his fiancée, Nia Long. Given the open status of their relationship, it’s not the ‘cheating’ that caused Long to let out a chuckle when paparazzi pressed her to spill the beans on if she and Udoka were working things out, but likely the hurt it could have caused their shared son and the rest of her family for the story to become such headline news. Udoka choosing to get involved with a member of the Boston Celtics organization who was booking her flights, and possibly even getting involved with more than one member of the organization, did seemingly irreparable damage.
Per MARCA, Spain’s national daily sport newspaper owned by Unidad Editorial, Long deleted any trace of Udoka on her Instagram page except for one photo of just him in celebration of him making it to the 2022 NBA Finals in his first season as Boston Celtics coach.
Flip to the next page for Stephen A. Smith speaking on why they didn’t fire Ime and the woman he cheating with, Katheleen Lynch.
