Monday marked the unofficial start of Celtics season with the team’s media day, but a notable member of the team was unavailable in-person: new coach Ime Udoka.
According to the team, Udoka is in his 10th day of isolation due to a breakthrough case of COVID-19. Udoka, who is vaccinated, hopes to rejoin the team for training camp on Tuesday. The Celtics said he has been asymptomatic for at least the last several days.
Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens addressed Udoka’s situation and said Udoka has still been able to get work done and connect with players remotely.
“He’s been fairly asymptomatic for the last 10 days. Thankfully he was vaccinated,” Stevens said. “It hasn’t hit him like it’s obviously hit others that we read about all over the country.
“I think that as far as missing time, he’s good at connecting with people. He’ll do that over FaceTime, over text, over many different ways. I mean, he was working at two in the morning in Tokyo [during the Olympics] helping us to talk to free agents. Even when he hasn’t been there in person, he’s been very invested every single minute. I’m not worried about that. That’s an easy part. I’m just very glad that his health is OK.”
As a team, the Celtics reportedly have multiple players who remain unvaccinated. Stevens said the team’s desire is for everyone to be fully vaccinated and that as an organization they will continue to educate as much as they possibly can.
"Our hope is that we get as close as to 100 percent vaccinated as possible, as soon as possible," he said. "That’s our hope. That’s our desire. Obviously we’ll continue to work from our end on what we can do, from an education standpoint, within the organization and do everything we can. At the same time, everybody has to make that decision for themselves."
The Celtics open the season against the Knicks in New York City, one of two American cities (along with San Francisco) that says it will require pro athletes to be vaccinated in order to play indoors.