Ime Udoka reflects on Celtics exit: 'Job not finished'

BOSTON -- Ime Udoka said before coaching his first game in Boston since being suspended for the 2022-23 season for multiple violations of team rules, and ultimately being removed as the Celtics' head coach, that he never finished the job he was hired to do, and that he let the people he was working with down.

"Job not finished," Udoka said, when asked how he looks back on that season and his subsequent removal from the job, prior to the Celtics beating Udoka's Houston Rockets 145-113 here at TD Garden Saturday night. "The relationships you build, and the people you impact. So that'd be the biggest thing [I think about].

"[I] formed a lot of relationships within a year, and obviously want to get a chance to run it back with a group you feel you can build and grow with. So, letting the people down. I talked about the players, the relationships I built with them, the coaches that came with me, and then everybody else that was impacted by it.

"So for me that's the biggest thing I would say overall is letting some people down, for sure. But we've talked it out and I've seen a lot of these people throughout the summer and talk regularly and so we move past it."

Udoka, when asked afterward if he was glad this game was over with, said, "It kind of didn't matter to me at all." During his lone season with Boston, he led a remarkable turnaround. The Celtics began the 2021-22 season with a 23-24 record through late January before ripping off a 28-7 stretch to end the regular season and then advancing to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2010 with series victories over the Brooklyn Nets, Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat.

The last game Udoka coached for the franchise was in this building, when Boston lost Game 6 of the 2022 NBA Finals to the Golden State Warriorsand watched Stephen Curry & Co. celebrate their fourth championship on the TD Garden parquet. But rather than the beginning of the long run together it appeared to be, Udoka instead was suspended for the 2022-23 season, and was officially replaced by Joe Mazzulla -- who had been elevated to interim coach after working on Udoka's staff the prior season -- on a permanent basis last February.

Both coaches, however, tried to downplay the significance of the reunion Saturday.

"Obviously the fact that Ime is back, that's great," Mazzulla said. "We worked together, and guys on the staff, but I don't think that really has anything to do with winning or losing."

"I spent a good year and had some success," Udoka said. "But I just saw a few people that you're reminded of, everyone on the ramp when you walk in. So, it was a little bit different, as far as that.

"We had a good year [here], not great year, [because we] didn't get it done. But yeah, I would say just seeing some people I haven't seen in a while ... then, once it's done, it's done. A first time for everything. We've been through it and are ready to move on."

Both Udoka and his former players have been open about the fact that they've maintained relationships with each other since his firing. At the time, players openly expressed confusion about what had happened with Udoka and said they had been left in the dark. Asked about that Saturday, Udoka said that wasn't the case.

"I would say they lied to you guys," Udoka said with a slight smile. "They knew. Some of them knew and, you know, obviously I could talk to them and they wouldn't share stuff publicly.

"So, who needed to know, knew."

From the Celtics' perspective, Jayson Tatum said they were just trying to move on from the situation, while adding it was good to see Udoka.Jaylen Brown - who led Boston with 32 points -- admitted it was "kind of a weird process" with how things played out with Udoka ahead of last season.

"We kind of knew what was going on, but then there was a time when we were hearing speculation that there was like, more to it or something else was like -- and it turned to be that there wasn't anything that we already knew. But definitely a peculiar situation or whatever.

"But overall, I'm just happy to see him back on his feet, back coaching on the sideline where he belongs, and I was happy it ended up working out for both parties."

Things didn't work out for both parties Saturday night, as Boston blew the game open in the third quarter, led by 21 points from Brown alone. Udoka, as he did so many times during his lone season here, said he didn't like his team's competitive spirit in the second half and wasn't pleased with the defensive work against his two former stars.

"I would have loved for people to guard them the way we guarded them tonight when I was here," Udoka said.

It didn't work out perfectly for Tatum, either, despite scoring 27 points in the win. That's because he was ejected early in the fourth quarter -- with the game well in hand -- after he felt he was fouled on an attempted dunk by Cam Whitmore, getting technicals from two separate referees to end his night early.

"I was frustrated," Tatum said. "I got fouled on the drive before that, I got the rebound and got hit. Then clearly smacked my whole arm on that dunk, and at some point throughout the course of the night you've got to stand up for yourself. It's not an every game thing or every night, but I'm not perfect.

"I'm going to get techs throughout every season. Tonight I just had to kind of let him know how I felt and that was that. I wasn't holding no grudge or anything after the game. I wasn't kicking s--- over in the locker room. I'm not holding no grudge. It happened, we move on, and we get ready for the next one."