EXPOSED: The Real Reason For The Ime Udoka Suspension

The drama surrounding the Boston Celtics and especially their head coach Ime Udoka has been the main topic these past few days. And it culminated with the team suspending Udoka for a full season. This came as a shock to some, and it sure looks like a very steep penalty.
So let me explain what’s the real reason behind the suspension. What up everybody, my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it.
Shams Charania has new info on this topic that gives us a different perspective of the whole story.
In his latest article on the Athletic, Charania writes that Some members of the Celtics organization first became aware of the relationship in July. At that time, team leadership was led to believe by both parties that the relationship was consensual. But the woman recently accused Udoka of making unwanted comments toward her — leading the team to launch a set of internal interviews. After which, the final decision was made.
Now this is a new moment in this whole situation and a big one at that. This is the exact reason for why the code of conduct even exists.
Remember the Dallas Mavericks debacle? There was a huge investigation done on Mavs office members that revealed sexual harassments, domestic violence, and all kinds of other detrimental behaviour. It ended ugly, and it even involved the owner Marc Cuban as a person who knew some of these issues but tried to come to settlements and confidentiality agreements.
Well this is the exact scenario that the Celtics want to avoid. A case by case falloff and corrosion of the team’s culture.
Even with having this code of conduct and these workplace guidelines, you see with this new info that they were still hesitant to implement when they found out about the affair.
But once there was even the slightest change of tone by the woman, accusing Udoka of making certain comments, the team saw how this could be a slippery slope and how the issue might snowball into a much bigger thing.
The woman could decide to sue, or go public with accusations, and her side of the story, all kinds of scenarios might develop from this. And you can see how it can become very ugly very soon.
With this suspension however, I feel like Boston set the bar high. The standards to which the team members will be held, and the expectations for how they should conduct themselves are nothing short of professional.
This is not some end of the bench guy, or an unknown team member, but rather the head coach we’re talking about. Possibly the greatest piece for their incredible turnaround and the road to the finals last year.
It would be very tempting for a team to forgive and forget when it comes to a prominent piece of their success. But with this move, their action is loud and clear. The franchise, and the organization comes before any single member of it.
It’s just unfortunate that it might be a step backwards for this team when it comes to actual basketball. This sudden coaching change for this season, along with the latest news that Robert Williams will have surgery and miss 4-6 weeks, it’s a huge blow. And suddenly the odds of them reaching the finals again have just plummeted.
Let me know in the comments if you think that the Celtics can survive all of this. That’s it for now, subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.