Ime Udoke / Twitter
Ime Udoka’s career is back on track after he was named coach of the Houston Rockets on April 26.
Ever since he was fired as coach of the Boston Celtics, initially suspended, and his relationship with celebrity and model Nia Long was ruined by a public cheating scandal, Udoka’s future in the NBA looked bleak.
The coach and former player of the San Antonio Spurs, along with other teams, who led the Celtics to the playoffs in his first and last season went silent.
That was until the announcement of his welcome to the Rockets.
The Boston Celtics, which is playing in the 2022-2023 first-round playoffs and sitting on the second seed without Udoka, are leading against Atlanta Hawks 3-2 and is one win away from advancing to the semi-finals in the Eastern Conference.
The Houston Rockets, which has not entered the playoff since its 2019-2020 season, has been a former shell of its competitive self.
Udoka’s involvement with the Rockets could also be the rebound the team has been looking for, considering the culminating problems at Houston is having great players like James Harden, Chris “CP3” Paul, Russell Westbrook and John Wall but having bad chemistry with its former head coach Stephen Silas.
Udoka detailed his plans to get more positive production from Houston’s assemblage of young talent, a group that tallied 60 losses in 2022-23 as the NBA’s second-youngest team.
The Houston Chronicle reported that Udoka plans to make the team, which has a lot of inexperienced players who collectively lost 60 games at the end of the season, more productive, “We’re trying to expedite the process of becoming professionals,” and, “Youth is not an excuse.”
Ironically, Silas, who has since left the Rockets as of April 10, was spotted at Celtics practice, suggesting he might become an assistant coach at the constant playoff-bound team.
As previously reported, the team recruited Joe Mazzulla as the full-time head coach after making him the interim head coach following Udoka’s scandalous affair airing to the public.