The empty circles of the Ime Udoka scandal in the Boston Celtics is now slowly being shaded.
Per Shams Charania of The Athletic, several members of the Celtics organization discovered the relationship of both Udoka and the female staff in July. At first, it was widely known by the team members that the relationship was consensual.
But the female staff recently accused Udoka of expressing unwanted comments towards her, which made the franchise authority to conduct internal interviews.
“Some members of the Celtics organization first became aware of the relationship in July, sources said. At that time, team leadership was led to believe by both parties that the relationship was consensual. But sources said that the woman recently accused Udoka of making unwanted comments toward her — leading the team to launch a set of internal interviews.
“The team’s decision and announcement came after a closed-door meeting Thursday that involved team owners and president Brad Stevens and lasted several hours, sources said. Earlier Thursday, Stevens and members of the Celtics front office met with players at the team facility.”
Udoka is set to serve his suspension for the whole 2022-23 season “immediately” as announced by the club. Charania first revealed last time that the 45-year-old mentor broke the team’s code of conduct for having an “improper intimate and consensual relationship” with a female staffer.
Assistant Joe Mazzulla is slated to lead as the interim head coach, inheriting a pressuring assignment of guiding a Celtics team that stands as one of the notable title heavyweights this looming season.
Udoka already expressed his public apology on the issue via statement. As such, he is not planning to resign as told by Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports.
In his first year as a lead coach last season, Udoka turned the Celtics’ fortunes around and helped them to claw a memorable postseason finish, as they made it to the NBA Finals for the first time in 12 years.
