What makes up a team's culture?
Is it franchise history? Its fans and the city in which it plays? A slogan like, "Heat Culture," or a (heaven forbid stomp-able) logo?
Those things feed into a team's culture; they sell t-shirts and add little pieces of flair for social media.
But above all, a team's culture is its people. That's the huge bet the Celtics have made in giving Ime Udoka over to the team with the most dysfunctional culture in the league – a team who just so happens to be Boston's Eastern Conference rivals.
The Celtics are betting their culture is bigger than any one coach, even a coach who took them to the NBA Finals in his first season. Udoka failed to meet the day-to-day cultural standards set within the Celtics organization, therefore he was shunned. The details around the reported inappropriate relationship between Udoka and another employee remain cloaked in secrecy.
But now the reality of what the Celtics have given up in name of culture sets in: Brooklyn wants Udoka as a replacement for Steve Nash, and that could spell doom for Boston's quest to return to the Finals in 2023 – if you believe a coach can set the culture for a team.
Not everyone does.
"It's really hard to win despite having bad culture, that's almost impossible," former NBA defensive star Raja Bell said on the Bill Simmons podcast Wednesday. "Your star power has to be of the highest level, and it's got to click."
"Coaches don't establish culture. They help with the culture," he continued, and then diagnosed what happened with Nash in Brooklyn:
"If you don't take control as an organization and put real parameters in place, and make sure that people understand what's expected of them and what's allowed to happen, and if this line is crossed, these are the ramifications – if you're not going to do that, you're going to have chaos. They've allowed chaos in Brooklyn."
The Celtics are betting that the culture in Brooklyn is so bad, it doesn't matter that their wunderkind coach goes there. Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant will blow up the team again.
On the flip side, they're betting on their own standards, in operating exactly the way Bell just detailed. They're betting on veteran leadership from Al Horford permeating through the rest of the team. They're betting on Marcus Smart's infectious competitiveness and loyalty to the laundry. They're even betting on Grant Williams' willingness to play the little brother role to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown on the public stage.
Is it the right bet? In the short-term, there's a good chance Brooklyn implodes because of the rot already under the floorboards. But long-term? If a few of the people in the jerseys change, and Udoka stays put, it could make for a headache on the horizon.
