The assumption since the Boston Celtics suspended head coach Ime Udoka for the entire 2022-23 season was that the Eastern Conference championship-winning coach in his first season was never going to get another NBA coaching opportunity again.
Not only did Udoka get involved with a member of the Celtics organization — someone who was actually booking travel for his fiancee Nia Long — but Joe Budden believes he also was involved with a minority owner’s wife.
According to Stephen A. Smith on ESPN’s “First Take,” however, Udoka apparently had another coaching opportunity lined up this season had the Boston Celtics fired him outright instead of suspending him.
Smith, who has been known to say bombastic things to bring attention to the World Wide Leader, claims that Udoka would have been hired by the Brooklyn Nets to replace Steve Nash as head coach in Kings County (h/t ClutchPoints):
"“I believe that part of the reason [Ime Udoka] was suspended, but not fired is because the Boston Celtics did not want him to end up in Brooklyn… The Nets would have fired Steve Nash and brought [Udoka] back & he would be the coach.”"
Suspended Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka has a history with the Nets
Ime Udoka was an assistant on the Brooklyn Nets during the 2020-21 season — one in which the Nets appeared to be a legitimate contender for the NBA Championship with a three-headed monster of Kyrie Irving, James Harden, and Kevin Durant.
That trio wasn’t healthy enough to play after a gentleman’s sweep of the Boston Celtics in the 2021 postseason, forcing Durant to attempt to carry the Nets past the eventual champion Milwaukee Bucks in the second round all by himself with Harden struggling with a hamstring injury and Irving out with an ankle injury he blamed on Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Udoka’s absence last season can’t directly be traced to the downfall of the Nets, but his success with the Boston Celtics certainly speaks well to his presence on an NBA bench. This Stephen A. Smith rumor doesn’t mesh with basically any other reporting regarding Udoka’s job prospects in the NBA, but it is far from the most ridiculous thing he has ever said.