When the dust finally settles, Ime Udoka is expected to be the next head of the Brooklyn Nets, replacing Steve Nash, who was ousted after a 2-5 start. Based on his resume, Udoka would seem to be a slam dunk hire, especially given his ties to Brooklyn (he was an assistant on Nash’s staff as recently as last year) and relationship with Kevin Durant, who he coached in the Tokyo Olympics last summer.
However, those praising Udoka as a tactician and locker-room motivator are conveniently forgetting the PR nightmare caused by his sexual impropriety in Boston, engaging in an improper workplace relationship while allegedly making women uncomfortable with “unwanted comments” and inappropriate text messages (to say nothing of him cheating on his longtime fiancée, actress Nia Long, with whom he shares a 10-year-old son). That prompted a yearlong suspension from the Celtics with no guarantee of Udoka being reinstated.
After exhibiting a stunning lack of professionalism (the fallout from “Me Too” and other public reckonings of disgraced stars in positions of power has made us acutely aware of workplace dynamics and the toxic hierarchy of male privilege), it would be a slap in the face to women everywhere if Udoka landed on his feet, inheriting one of the league’s most talented rosters weeks after a scandal that rocked the basketball world. In spite of backlash from Brooklyn’s reported courtship of Udoka, NBA analyst Jalen Rose still thinks he’s the right man for the job, endorsing his former Knicks teammate, who he feels will give the Nets an identity they searched for but never found under Nash.
“I think he will be a person that gets the roster to actually play to its potential, which we have not seen in the last couple of years. And let me just say one other word that doesn’t get said enough. He’s going to give them a leader,” said Rose on Wednesday’s edition of Jalen and Jacoby. “You look down at the box score, I see the 30 points. But you know what I don’t see from KD and Kyrie? Making the people around them better. Ime Udoka is now going to also give them strategy and leadership.”
As cringeworthy and ill-timed as that assessment may be, Rose could very well be right—Udoka is seen as an objectively good coach, leading the Celtics to within two games of an NBA title in his first and, from the looks of it, only season on the job. Still, it’s inexplicable the Nets would invite this kind of controversy so soon after putting out a fire started by Kyrie Irving, whose offensive, antisemitic tweets promoting hate and misinformation earned him a stern rebuke from Charles Barkley, among other voices in sports media. Of course, in a morally bankrupt sports landscape that prioritizes winning above all else (case in point—the Browns rewarding alleged predator Deshaun Watson with one of the most lucrative contracts in NFL history), it should come as no surprise that the Nets, desperate for a return on their investment after years of spinning their wheels in abject futility, would go to such drastic lengths to placate their star tandem of Durant and Irving.
Related
Related
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy Sports
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram