Report: Nets Spoke With Ime Udoka Prior to Steve Nash Firing

It seems as if the Nets really want Ime Udoka as their next coach, and won’t allow his suspension with the Celtics to keep them from hiring him.

Per Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports, the Nets spoke with Udoka over the weekend, prior to firing Steve Nash — a move they made official on Tuesday.

Udoka, 45, led the Celtics to the Finals in his first season as an NBA head coach. He was then suspended for the year for what the team called an inappropriate relationship with a female employee.

NetsDaily reported that he also sent repeated inappropriate messages to multiple female staffers.

While the Nets certainly have more details, and perhaps think the punishment fit the crime for the Celtics, they seem to believe that “misconduct with a junior employee should not end a person’s career,” Fischer wrote.

Udoka has yet to be named Nets coach, though it is expected to happen any day now.

“This very much is probably for this Nets’ group, this iteration, this core, this is probably the last ditch effort to make this work,” ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said of the Nets’ potentially hiring Udoka, via RealGM.

Udoka was an assistant under Nash with the Nets for one season, before taking the Celtics job in the summer of 2021. 

Prior to his coaching career, Udoka was a small forward with the Lakers in 2004, then spent time with the Knicks, Trail Blazers, Spurs and Kings from 2006-11. He also played professionally overseas, then served as an assistant with the Spurs for seven years.

“There is a prevailing school of thought in NBA coaching circles that the task simply boils down to maximizing a team’s star players,” Fischer wrote. “And there has been no taller task than with these Brooklyn Nets.”