Jayson Tatum reflects on Ime Udoka's Celtics stint after beatdown of Rockets
01/04/2025 11:54 AM
After a 23-point road win against the Houston Rockets, Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum spoke on his former coach, Ime Udoka, who now leads the up-and-coming Rockets.
Udoka coached Tatum and the Celtics during the 2021-22 season, and despite a lackluster first few months, Boston turned its season around and made it back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2010. Udoka was heavily praised by fans and media members for his work with Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and a Celtics core that had fallen short in the Eastern Conference playoffs multiple times to that point.
For that reason, it’s easy to see why Tatum, who has since won an NBA Championship and an Olympic gold medal, would have fond memories of Udoka as his coach.
“Ime, that one year was special,” Tatum said, via MassLive’s Brian Robb. “First time I made first team All-NBA, went to the Finals, at that point it was the best season I had and he instilled something in the organization that was needed at the time.”
In 2021, Udoka succeeded Brad Stevens as the Celtics’ head coach. Stevens, in turn, became Boston’s president of basketball operations, replacing the retiring Danny Ainge, who has since become the head decisionmaker in the Utah Jazz’s front office.
Although Stevens was widely viewed as one of the smartest and best coaches in the NBA, Tatum said after the Rockets game that it was a “good time for a change” and elaborated on the qualities that made Udoka the right coach at the right time.
“Brad had done an amazing job for 10 years or whatever it was,” Tatum said. “Sometimes you just need a different voice and a different style of coaching.
"I think Ime, he's big on toughness and physicality and taking on the challenge and going at people. And that's what we did that year, right? We had a tough start. But him as our head coach, he never wavered and we turned out season around. We was hungry. And got to the Finals and came up short. We loved to have him around. He's an amazing person, amazing coach.”
After the Finals appearance, which ended with a six-game series loss to the Golden State Warriors, the Celtics seemed prime to make another run at the title in 2023. However, shortly before the season was set to begin, Boston suspended Udoka for the entire season for an improper intimate relationship with a female Celtics employee, who accused Udoka of making “unwanted comments” toward her.
Two months after the Celtics removed the interim label from coach Joe Mazzulla, Udoka agreed with the Rockets to become their next head coach. Udoka led Houston to a 41-41 record in his first season, the best record for the franchise in four years. This season, Udoka and the Rockets are third in the Western Conference and have the sixth-best record in the NBA.
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