Yesterday, the Celtics hired their 18th coach in franchise history, and their first one since 2013.
After a relatively swift process, the Celtics elected to hire Ime Udoka to be their head coach.
Udoka certainly isn’t a household name, as he enters Boston with no head coaching experience. But, the 43-year- old leader of the Boston Celtics does not lack in playing or coaching experience.
In 2002 Udoka began his professional basketball career in the NBA G League, playing for the Charleston Lowgators. Udoka was called up in 2004, and made his NBA debut with the Los Angeles Lakers. But, after just 5 games, Udoka was released. After a stint in Europe, Udoka decided to make another run at a basketball career in the United States. In 2005, he signed with the Forth Worth Flyers of the NBA G League. Udoka played well in his second stint in the G League, and earned a contract with the New York Knicks in 2006. But, similar to his first NBA go-around, Udoka was released by the Knicks after just 8 games. It looked like Udoka’s chances of staying the NBA had finished.
But, the following season the Portland Trail Blazers gave him a shot to make the roster. Udoka made the most of the opportunity, making the roster, and received a career high 28.6 minutes per game. Udoka continued to average big minutes the next season with the San Antonio Spurs, playing there for 4 seasons. After his tenure with the Spurs, Udoka’s basketball career began to wind down, as he was never able to land big minutes with an NBA team again. He bounced around the NBA and Europe for the remainder of his playing career.
Udoka got his first opportunity as an assistant coach under Greg Popovich in 2012 with the Spurs. He was an assistant there for 8 seasons, gaining the respect of the Spurs core players. Udoka was also one of the key reasons why LaMarcus Aldridge left the Trail Blazers for the Spurs in 2015.
According to Sam Amick of USA Today Sports, “ they may need to come up with an in-house award to honor the man who made it all possible. It’s not Gregg Popovich, or Tim Duncan, or any of the usual suspects from their storied group. It’s Ime Udoka, a 38-year-old Spurs assistant and former Spurs player who was the unsung hero in their pursuit of the former Portland Trail Blazers big man.”
Udoka was Aldridge’s teammate in Portland, and really helped close the deal between Aldridge and the Spurs. Udoka took a flight from Los Angeles to Dallas for the sole reason of answering any questions Aldridge may have had.
After 8 seasons in San Antonio, Udoka was hired as an assistant coach for the Philadelphia 76ers. But, after only 1 season in Philly, Udoka joined Steve Nash’s staff in Brooklyn, and was an assistant for the Brooklyn Nets.
After 10 season as an assistant coach, Udoka will finally get a head coaching opportunity.
The decision for the Celtics to hire Udoka checked the boxes for the Celtics, during their search process. They wanted someone who was a former player who had the respect of star players Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Udoka checks both those boxes, and had even coached Tatum and Brown in the past for Team USA in the Summer of 2019.
Udoka would not be the Celtics coach today if Tatum and or Brown did not think he was worthy of this spot. It’s a superstar driven league, and superstars have a lot of say during these kinds of searches.
Udoka has even coached recently acquired Al Horford during his tenure in Philadelphia.
According to Al Horford, “Ime is a great guy. Him and I had a really good relationship. He was always very professional.”
Udoka certainly has his fans across the NBA landscape, and many of them believe that this head coaching opportunity is long overdue.
Nobody is a bigger fan of Udoka then Greg Popovich. And this quote from 2015 speaks volume to that:
All of this praise of Udoka is certainly note worthy, but at the end of the day it will come down to his ability to lead the room in 2021. Will his players buy into him? Will he work well with player development? Will the chemistry of the team improve? Can he bring a championship to Boston? Nobody in the NBA knows the answer to those questions.
Ime Udoka will be thrown right into the fire this season, and will surely be put to the test.