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The Houston Rockets have hired ex-Celtics coach Ime Udoka after Udoka was dismissed as Boston’s head coach months ago.
The Houston Rockets have agreed to a deal hiring ex-Celtics head coach Ime Udoka despite his controversial dismissal from Boston.
According to ESPN’s Senior NBA Insider, Adrian Wojnarowkski, the Rockets investigated the league office with the Celtics before making the job offer.
“There was nothing that they found to be disqualifying to work again in the NBA,” Wojnarowkski said on ESPN.
Udoka was suspended by the Boston Celtics for the entire 2022-23 NBA season last September for “violations of team policies” after it was revealed Udoka had improper intimate and consensual relationships with multiple female members of the team staff.
“I want to apologize to our players, fans, the entire Celtics organization, and my family for letting them down,” Udoka said in a statement following the suspension. “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 have no further comment.”
Ime Udoka back as NBA coach
In his one season as head coach of the Boston Celtics, Udoka led the young team to the NBA Finals where they lost to the Golden State Warriors.
In February, the Celtics announced that they would remove the interim head coach title on Joe Mazzulla and make him the 19th head coach in franchise history.
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 her, an element that significantly factored into the severity of Udoka’s initial suspension, sources told ESPN in September.
Udoka has not made a public statement since his suspension last September.