Ime Udoka suspended for the 22-23 season

Jed Zeppelin

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Good on the C’s. Majority of pro teams (NFL, at least, for sure) likely would have brought in a friendly third party to find nothing, declare boys will be boys, and sweep it under the rug making it worse later when it all came out anyway.

I won’t give a single eyeball or thought to Stephen A Smith so I don’t know what he’s saying but fuck him anyway. Everything wrong with sports media in the last 15-20 years.
 

Shelterdog

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They are going to look incredibly stupid when it (probably) comes out that there was something even worse about this that we don't know yet. Like someone's job was threatened to keep quiet type of thing.
Yeah, don't want to speculate but people do incredibly dumb shit when they get investigated.
 

Leather

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Are the Celtics hiring a law firm to determine if two employees are engaged in a consensual relationship? I mean use your damned brains.
I mean, it's possible that they'd hire someone like a law firm to simply act as an outside auditor, given the high level Ime has in the organization. When a person being investigated is at or above the level of the investigators (and their boss), that's a commonplace move (it removes the potential fear of reprisal that may color the findings).

But the attitude of "well it was consensual!" being so widespread again highlights the lack of understanding of how fucking bad these things can be for professional organizations, and even assuming arguendo that it was "only" the relationship and nothing more, it's still serious enough that smart people for the Celtics are being very careful to do this the right way because of the complexities it can raise.
 

PedroKsBambino

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Steven A says they should have fired him and not said why lol.
Stephen A sucks, and he's in the eyeball game not the truth or reality game....but what he proposes is precisely what the Timberwolves did with their GM, so it's less crazy than most of Stephen A's mutterings.
 

riboflav

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Now saying it aloud. SAS suggests the woman (victim) involved needs to be exposed and punished.
 

PedroKsBambino

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Now saying it aloud. SAS suggests the woman (victim) involved needs to be exposed and punished.
That's incredibly atrocious---in a fair and just world consumer brands would be abandoning ESPN properties over him.
 

Ed Hillel

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Ohhh, SAS reigned it in just when it seemed it really could go off the deep end.
 

Ale Xander

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Steven A is a fucking moron. When the full story comes out, I guarantee he won't be held accountable for pouring gasoline on this fire.
Did he basically imply that sexual harassment is ok/not a big deal because it's commonplace? Did I hear that right?What is wrong with him (if I heard it right)?
 

Ed Hillel

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Well, now he's back to why didn't we name everyone, after interrupting Malika when he finally picks his head up from his phone.

That was like The Office but real life.
 

Ralphwiggum

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Are the Celtics hiring a law firm to determine if two employees are engaged in a consensual relationship?
I am literally in the middle of an investigation right now where the allegation is that two individuals are having a consensual relationship (one works for the other). We've hired an outside law firm to conduct the investigation because one of the individuals is very senior in the organization and we don't want anyone from HR or Legal to have to interview either of the two individuals.

Edit: I have no clue of the details in this particular case, just saying the hiring of a law firm to investigation doesn't really have any bearing on whether it was allegedly consensual or something worse.
 

soxhop411

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Stephen A getting suspended or fired would be a fantastic outcome, I have to admit
its also clear as day he has never been required to take sexual harassment training that many companies have require its employees to take... Or he has and learned nothing..
 

Philip Jeff Frye

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its also clear as day he has never been required to take sexual harassment training that many companies have require its employees to take... Or he has and learned nothing..
He's learned that being loud and obnoxious gathers eyeballs and clicks. His bosses have learned that too.
 

BigSoxFan

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He's learned that being loud and obnoxious gathers eyeballs and clicks. His bosses have learned that too.
Yeah. Dude makes $12M / year to say stupid, uninformed stuff. ESPN loves him. He ain't getting canned over back-and-forth this unless he crosses the line even more egregiously than he already has.
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

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One thing that I don't think has been mentioned in this thread is that Ime might have some internal issues that he needs to address and may have been given some methods to address them. I mention this only because if there is any kind of "disability" at play, that would change the legal landscape (and might be the reason for the suspension instead of the outright termination.)

Are the Celtics hiring a law firm to determine if two employees are engaged in a consensual relationship?
It's pretty common practice to hire an outside law firm when there are allegations of misconduct in an organization. While not cheap, it certainly gives the corporation some cover (like an insurance policy) and the Cs can certainly afford this.
 

PedroKsBambino

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Yeah. Dude makes $12M / year to say stupid, uninformed stuff. ESPN loves him. He ain't getting canned over back-and-forth this unless he crosses the line even more egregiously than he already has.
His getting fired will never be about 'crossing the line' it will only be about sponsors abandoning his show and the network. Which I hope they do, but do not expect as ESPN has a pretty unique and reliable demo they want to access unfortunately.
 

radsoxfan

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I am literally in the middle of an investigation right now where the allegation is that two individuals are having a consensual relationship (one works for the other). We've hired an outside law firm to conduct the investigation because one of the individuals is very senior in the organization and we don't want anyone from HR or Legal to have to interview either of the two individuals.

Edit: I have no clue of the details in this particular case, just saying the hiring of a law firm to investigation doesn't really have any bearing on whether it was allegedly consensual or something worse.
I think this is exactly why Wyc's comment that the investigation took "twists and turns" was one of the few revealing things he said.

Hiring the law firm could be a CYA type thing just to make sure they are covering their bases with a likely consensual workplace relationship.

Clearly something else happened along the way beyond that leading to the suspension.
 

PedroKsBambino

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One thing that I don't think has been mentioned in this thread is that Ime might have some internal issues that he needs to address and may have been given some methods to address them. I mention this only because if there is any kind of "disability" at play, that would change the legal landscape (and might be the reason for the suspension instead of the outright termination.)
This is a really good point. I have suggested Ime's agent should have been angling for a 'personal problems' framing of this; it is separately possible Ime could have an actual, underlying challenge that is part of the decision making process as you note.
 

EvilEmpire

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SAS is an asshole. Beyond being obnoxious for ratings, just about everything he does is with a mind toward currying favor with players, who are his best sources. Point being, whatever nonsense we hear from him is likely the same kind of stuff circulating amongst the players he interacts with.

That doesn't mean Celtics players are his sources of course. But I do think players will generally rally around Ime. Understandable, but not much to be done about it other than for the Celtics to handle this situation in a professional manner, as they seem to be doing.
 

Cellar-Door

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Not sure why people are surprised by SAS, this is the same guy who proudly said basically "women who get abused probably deserved it" got suspended and never showed the slightest remorse, he's an absolute knuckle-dragger.
 

Mloaf71

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Be interesting to see if espn shares those heinous SAS takes on their website or socials.
Do yourself a favor and don’t read #FirstTake on Twitter. Malika being taken to task by almost every poster, SAS being exalted for putting her in her place and standing up for Ime, and everyone calling for the woman to be outed.

twitter is an ugly ugly view of the world.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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Is it possible to break out the First Take commentary/discussion? Its fine but has nothing to do with this situation or reality.
 

benhogan

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Be interesting to see if espn shares those heinous SAS takes on their website or socials.
of course, they will be there

SAS is blaming the Celtics for the leaks now, which Woj/Shams can easily expand on (but won't)

if anyone finds SAS's comments annoying just wait until A11Even weighs in o_O

irrational Celtic/Boston haters will be piling on looking to split hairs on anything Wyc or Brad said/did
 

Kliq

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Not sure why people are surprised by SAS, this is the same guy who proudly said basically "women who get abused probably deserved it" got suspended and never showed the slightest remorse, he's an absolute knuckle-dragger.
He's also someone who is a machine-gun of bullshit everyday, so any one thing he says gets ignored pretty quickly because he is always on to the next crazy thing. In the same way that Trump can have one million controversies that would sink the political careers of anybody else, SAS can say a bunch of things that would get almost anybody else fired.
 

BigSoxFan

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Is it possible to break out the First Take commentary/discussion? Its fine but has nothing to do with this situation or reality.
I would argue to the contrary. SAS is not alone in his commentary on the issue. How this punishment is perceived by players, coaches, media, etc. could have an impact on the Celtics. Or it could not. We don’t know yet.

Not sure I see the point of breaking it out given it was a short segment and the meat of the discussion will carry on.
 

Myt1

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I gotta say, the racial aspect of things is a bit surprising to me. There are multiple stories about white hockey players sleeping with a teammate’s wife and getting traded because of it. While that’s not a perfect analogy, because of on-ice chemistry and player issues that aren’t directly applicable here (and because the traded player still makes his salary), this situation does appear to have the aggravating factors of it being a workplace issue and possibly involving harassment.

As for people who are less informed about the current state of play in many places regarding policies governing romantic relationships between two people employed by the same organization, no small part of rules prohibiting such relationships arise from the fact that even most consensual relationships end, and some quite badly.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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I would argue to the contrary. SAS is not alone in his commentary on the issue. How this punishment is perceived by players, coaches, media, etc. could have an impact on the Celtics. Or it could not. We don’t know yet.

Not sure I see the point of breaking it out given it was a short segment and the meat of the discussion will carry on.
I get it if people want to return to engaging in wild, unfounded speculation like we had earlier in the thread - a poster comes up with the version of events they are sure happened despite no information and people go down that rabbit hole. People in the league may even buy what the media is selling today too. However its a discussion devoid of facts.
 

ShaneTrot

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This whole situation sucks, I watch sports for fun and to see people do incredible things. The sideshow human stupidity, hubris, exorbitant greed, and/or cruelty issues that occur annoy me greatly and take all the fun out of fandom. The ability of people to screw up a great situation should never be underestimated. I love Ime as a coach but they should just fire him and move on.
 

E5 Yaz

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Incarcerated Bob, SAS and TMZ ... we've now achieved the Unholy Trinity of Uselessness