With his hiring by the Rockets official, former Boston Celtics coach Ime Udoka checks all the boxes for a home-run hire at head coach. There was, however, one important question to answer heading into Houston’s coaching search to replace Stephen Silas.
Why was Udoka, 45, available in the first place?
Despite his success in his first season with the Celtics, including a trip to the 2022 NBA Finals, Udoka was let go due to an alleged affair with a female subordinate. Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, known best as Woj, here’s further background on that incident:
An independent law firm probe into Udoka found that he used crude language in his dialogue with a female subordinate before the start of an improper workplace relationship with a subordinate, an element that significantly factored into the severity of Udoka’s initial suspension, sources told ESPN in September.
Those investigative findings — which described Udoka’s verbiage as especially concerning coming from a workplace superior — contributed to what became an impossible pathway back to his reinstatement as Celtics coach. The power dynamic associated with a superior’s improper relationship with a staff member was the primary finding and policy violation cited in the law firm’s report, which was commissioned by the Celtics and completed in September, sources said.
Full details on the Houston Rockets hiring of Ime Udoka as coach. https://t.co/y13yV9KBGt
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 24, 2023
Other than a brief statement issued once the scandal broke last September, Udoka has kept a low profile and has not made any public comments in the months since. He sat out the entirety of the 2022-23 season and was not required to do any interviews, since he was no longer working in any official capacity with an NBA team.
That will change, of course, when Udoka is introduced as head coach of the Rockets in a press conference later this week.
Per Woj, the Rockets and general manager Rafael Stone investigated the incident with the NBA league office and the Celtics, among other entities, before making the job offer to Udoka.
Stone began his career with the Rockets as general counsel, which could give him something of a unique lens into this situation.
