Jayson Tatum Shows His Respect for Houston Rockets Head Coach Ime Udoka

In a recent episode of the Point Forward Podcast, Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum shared just how much respect he has for the head coach of the Houston Rockets.

Houston Rockets head coach Ime Udoka has surprised a lot of people with how he has the team playing so far this season, but stars like Jayson Tatum are not as surprised.

On a recent episode of the Point Forward Podcast hosted by Evan Turner and Andre Iguodala, the Boston Celtics superstar gave an inside look into his experience with Udoka and talked a bit about how much he respects his former coach.

"I've got so much love and respect for Ime," Tatum said. "People forget we were 23-24, and we were the 11 seed. We finished the season 26-3 and we went on a crazy run."

Former Boston Celtics coach Ime Udoka has brought his mentality over to the Houston Rockets this season / Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports

Tatum averaged 27 points and 8 rebounds in his one season coached by Udoka in the 2021-22 season and attributed a lot of his individual success, as well as the team's success, to the mentality that Udoka brought.

"That mentality every day of him saying stuff like 'we are a track team; we are not running from nobody'... For that message to come from the top, from the coach, I think it just ran through everybody."

Now, Udoka has brought that killer mentality to a Rockets team who definitely feels like they have something to prove after last year. After their disappointing 22-60 record last season, the Rockets will be looking to prove all of their doubters wrong, and they are off to a solid start.

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Udoka and the Rockets will be back in action on Wednesday against Desmond Bane and the Memphis Grizzlies. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. from the Toyota Center.