Ime Udoka Facing Suspension for Relationship With Staffer, per Report

The Celtics coach could reportedly miss the entire 2022–23 season.

Ime Udoka is likely to be suspended for the entire 2022–23 season for having a consensual relationship with a woman on the Celtics staff, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Assistant coach Joe Mazzulla will likely be named interim coach. 

ESPN first reported that Udoka could face suspension for violation of organizational guidelines. It was later reported by The Athletic’s Shams Charania the reason for the violation was due to an intimate relationship. It’s unclear who the woman is. 

Udoka took over before last season following Danny Ainge’s retirement and Brad Stevens’s moving into the team’s front office as president of basketball operations. The first-year coach led the team to a second-place finish in the Eastern Conference in the regular season and the team’s first appearance in the NBA Finals in 12 years.

Mazzulla has never held a head-coaching job in the NBA before, but he had stints as an assistant at Glenville State, Fairmont State and the Maine Red Claws. He was head coach at Fairmont from 2017 to ’19 until he was offered a job on Boston’s bench.