Ime Udoka got his coaching start under Gregg Popovich, and learned some valuable lessons. Spurs great Tony Parker says there's one championship season in particular from San Antonio that applies to the Celtics of today.
In a recent interview with The Athletic's Jay King, Parker talked about the Spurs' 2014 team, which defeated the Heat in five games in the NBA Finals. The previous year, Miami bested the Spurs in seven games. Celtics fans may remember that Ray Allen hit the game-winning three in Game 6.
Parker says the Spurs used their crushing loss as motivation.
"For the Celtics, that's what they have to do," he said.
It seems as if Udoka, who was with the Spurs from 2012-19, is already trying to instill that mindset in the Celtics. King mentions that Udoka preached about the importance of learning from the Warriors' consistency.
"He was with us in those years," Parker said. "So he can definitely take some stuff from what we had to go through. I played with him as teammates and had him as a coach. He's been through everything with us, so he knows better than anybody how to bounce back from a tough NBA Finals loss."
There are stark differences between the 2022 Celtics and 2014 Spurs, mainly when it comes to experience. The Spurs were comprised of several championship tested veterans, such as Tim Duncan (37), Manu Ginóbili (36) and Parker (32).
Meanwhile, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are just entering their mid-20s. But they have played in three Eastern Conference Finals together and one NBA Final. They have their share of playoff experience as well.
We'll see if they can build on it.
