Basketball

As Celtics try to explain Ime Udoka suspension, staffers bear fallout



BOSTON — There is always a commotion around a press conference, as a room full of people busy themselves, waiting for the show to begin. But at 11:05 a.m. Friday at the Auerbach Center, there was a rush of silence.

Brad Stevens and Wyc Grousbeck were about to take the podium to discuss a coaching change, but in a drastically different tone than they did a summer ago.

Stevens was jubilant the last time he was sitting up there next to his new coach, presenting Ime Udoka as his successor. Now he was sitting in that same spot choking back tears, with Udoka, his coach, out of sight and out of the Celtics, for now.

Udoka is suspended for the 2022-23 season for multiple violations of Celtics team policies, related to an intimate relationship with a female staffer in the organization, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania. Grousbeck wouldn’t say what happened, even in the vaguest terms. When asked simply if anyone was harmed by Udoka’s behavior, the Celtics’ managing partner refused to comment.

Uncertainty remains over the situation and the franchise, but it’s not just for the locker room and front office.

Social media erupted Thursday with baseless accusations levied against several female staffers in the Celtics organization, as a sea of faceless Twitter users doxxed and attacked anyone they could find. It sparked a traumatic day for those caught in the aftermath and everyone else in the franchise, which includes far more employees than those in the relatively small basketball operations department.

“We have a lot of talented women in our organization and I thought yesterday was really hard on them,” Stevens said as he held back tears.





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