Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens expressed his support for the women within the organization after unsubstantiated rumors about the identity of the woman involved with coach Ime Udoka emerged on social media this week.
Boston announced Thursday night that Udoka received a yearlong suspension for “violations of team policies,” effective immediately. The Athletic’s Shams Charania had previously reported that Udoka violated the team’s code of conduct by engaging in an “improper intimate and consensual relationship” with a female staffer.
Stevens and Celtics governor Wyc Grousbeck met with reporters Friday to discuss the decision to suspend Udoka, revealing that the team enlisted a law firm to conduct an impartial investigation into the coach’s actions. Citing privacy concerns, Grousbeck did not expand upon the details of the situation involving Udoka, but he did say the coach committed “a couple of” violations of team policy.
Grousbeck did not reveal the identity of the other individuals involved and said nobody else in the organization is facing punishment as a result of the investigation.
Although the Celtics never implicated anyone other than Udoka in this week’s discipline, a number of users on social media attempted to uncover the identity of the woman who may have been involved with Udoka. Stevens found that speculation to be unacceptable and reiterated his support for the women in Boston’s organization during the press conference.
“We have a lot of talented women in our organization, and I thought yesterday was really hard on them,” Stevens said in his opening statement Friday. “I think that nobody can control Twitter speculation, rampant bulls---, but I do think that we as an organization have a responsibility to make sure we’re there to support them now, because a lot of people were dragged unfairly into that.”
While the organization did not expand any further on the details that led to the punishment for Udoka, a Thursday-night report from Charania shared additional information about the circumstances that led to the suspension decision.
According to Charania, members of the Celtics organization became aware of the relationship in July, and Boston’s leadership was led to believe by both Udoka and the woman that it was consensual. But the woman recently said Udoka made unwanted comments toward her, prompting the team to launch a set of internal interviews, per Charania.
Grousbeck and Stevens did not confirm or deny information from The Athletic’s report on Friday.
In a statement shared on Twitter by ESPN’s Malika Andrews, Udoka issued an apology to Celtics players, the organization and fans for his actions.
“I want to apologize to our players, fans, the entire Celtics organization, and my family for letting them down,” Udoka said Thursday. “I am sorry for putting the team in this difficult situation, and I accept the team’s decision. Out of respect for everyone involved, I will have no further comment.”
