Boston Celtics: Retired NFL star defends Ime Udoka, slams Brett Favre
The Boston Celtics suspending Ime Udoka for having an intimate relationship with a female member of the franchise’s staff is going to dominate sports talk radio for the next few days, and likely well into the 2022-23 NBA season.
According to retired 2x Super Bowl champion wide receiver Torrey Smith, that’s nowhere near the story that Brett Favre misusing Mississippi taxpayer funds to build a volleyball court for his alma mater is.
Smith, who played for the Baltimore Ravens, San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles, and Carolina Panthers during his eight-year NFL career, said as much in a tweet on Thursday morning following the announcement of Udoka’s full-season suspension:
Cheating on your wife with a co-worker is a private matter. Brett Favre got paid with welfare money and knew it.
— Torrey Smith (@TorreySmithWR) September 22, 2022
Good morning! https://t.co/9dkzBlsXaJ
Full-year suspension for Boston Celtics Head Coach Ime Udoka is too harsh a punishment
Ime Udoka didn’t commit any crimes in having a consensual physical relationship with a female member of the Boston Celtics staff. While he did step out on his fiancée Nia Long, there’s things about their relationship the public isn’t privy too.
Judging by a 2020 interview with Essence, it sounded as though Long had questions about their relationship herself:
"“Love is complicated, let’s just start there. And then you start a marriage, which I’ve never been married. And there’s a reason for that because I don’t know that I need to say ‘I do’ to prove to you that I love you. But also, what does marriage really [mean]… that you own me now and I own you? I don’t get that part.”"
There’s no doubt that Udoka’s commitment to Long, at least as we know it publicly, was undone by the head coach’s infidelity. With that said, that isn’t illegal. Just frowned upon. But does frowning upon his actions warrant Udoka getting suspended for the same amount of time Robert Sarver was disciplined for before the Phoenix Suns owner announced his intention to sell the team? Sarver’s allegations of workplace harassment were bordering on unlawful activity. Udoka wasn’t even accused of harassment, just engaging in a consensual relationship.
It feels like there’s more to this story. There has to be for this suspension to look even remotely reasonable.