Ime Udoka's inappropriate relationship with a basketball staffer doomed his tenure with the Boston Celtics before 2022-23 tipped off. A couple months later, reports emerged that the Brooklyn Nets were on verge of hiring Udoka to replace Steve Nash as head coach, only for the team to reverse course and promote Jacque Vaughn from within.
The controversy that sparked Udoka's ultimate dismissal from the Celtics and contributed to his marriage with the Nets falling apart, obviously, hasn't gone away. Why didn't it stop the Houston Rockets from hiring him, then?
Referencing the independent investigation of the matter Boston completed after initially suspending Udoka last August, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski notes the NBA office never instructed the Rockets or any other team searching for a new head to not hire Udoka.
“…there was nothing that the league office was telling them [that] precluded Houston or any other team from hiring Ime Udoka. That there was nothing that they found that there was disqualifying to work again in the NBA,” Wojnarowski reported on Tuesday.
Houston agreed to terms with Udoka on Monday, ending his eight-month exile from the league.
Boston originally suspended him for the entirety of this season upon learning more about Udoka's improper relationship with a female subordinate, making Joe Mazzulla the team's interim head coach. The Celtics removed the interim tag on Mazzulla's title in mid-February, signing him to a multi-year extension and officially cutting ties with Udoka.
Though Houston relied on the league's acceptance of findings in Boston's third-party probe, the front office also reportedly conducted its own examination of Udoka's long history in the NBA before naming him the Rockets' next head coach.
“But I think for Houston, certainly they met Udoka in person, they spent time with him, they talked to a lot of people who worked with him, who've known him, who've vouched for him through the years in different organizations, and came to the decision they would be willing to offer him their head-coaching job and make a significant commitment to him contractually,” Wojnarowski said.
"There was nothing that they found to be disqualifying to work again in the NBA."@wojespn speaks on the Houston Rockets decision to hire Ime Udoka as their new Head Coach.pic.twitter.com/Oxp23SRmxu
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) April 25, 2023
Ime Udoka inherits an inexperienced, talented Houston team that went 22-60 during the regular season and has a 14.0% chance of winning the top pick in the 2023 draft.
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