The Boston Celtics’ Dream Offseason Has Turned Into A Nightmare

The trouble had been brewing for some time but Friday was the day when the Boston Celtics’ once-promising offseason officially went off the rails. With one unsatisfying press conference, the Celtics went from being the betting favorites to become next year’s NBA champions to a gigantic question mark.

The outlook was much rosier back in July. Not only were the Celtics fresh off an unlikely NBA Finals appearance, they had just traded for Malcolm Brogdon and added free agent Danilo Gallinari, upgrading an already formidable roster without sacrificing any key pieces. With a little luck, the upcoming season would be their oyster. Luck, however, would not be on the table.

In case you missed it, there was straight basketball news in Boston on Friday, but none of it was of the good variety. First, came the report that Robert Williams’ timetable for recovery from knee surgery wouldn’t be 4-to-6 weeks as previously estimated but rather 8-to-12. That means November would be the earliest that the center would even be cleared to resume basketball activities and it would likely to be much later before the team allows to play a legitimate NBA game.

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Promptly after disclosing Williams’ updated status, the Celtics decided to follow it up with the news that Danilo Gallinari had undergone successful ACL surgery. In Gallinari’s case, there was no timetable for his return. This was as expected but it was still one more piece of bad news for the Celtics franchise.

That day’s main event, however, was the press conference that finally provided closure, if not clarity, to the story that had been brewing for the previous 48 hours. On Wednesday, news broke Celtics were about to hand a lengthy suspension to head coach Ime Udoka for violations of team conduct which apparently involved an improper relationship with a female employee, news that sparked plenty of media speculation but so far few established facts.

Whatever the specifics, the Celtics hired a law firm to investigate the matter and they found Udoka guilty of multiple violations of team policy. Owner Wyc Grousbeck made the decision to suspend Udoka for a full year, a punishment that was coupled with a “significant” financial hit. Beyond that news, the Celtics kept mum about the details of the offenses during their press conference, hoping to protect the privacy of the individuals involved.

Even without knowing the story, it feels clear that this is less of a sports story than one about workplace culture, abuse of power and quite possibly more serious offenses. How Udoka’s absence will affect the team’s performance this upcoming basketball season should not be anybody’s primary concern right now.

With that said, the Celtics will have to play through their (former?) head coach’s absence going forward. It’s hard to think that this doesn’t put the team in a more vulnerable position they were just earlier in the week. The continuity of their coaching staff was supposed to be one of the team’s strengths and it was tempting to fantasize about Udoka, who had already received some NBA Coach of the Year consideration, could do with a full year of seasoning already under his belt.

More than that, Udoka was the head coach that Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown went out of their way to recommend and—at least after a painful adjustment period early on—the team seemed to adapt well to his system. His tough love approach came off as a welcome change of pace from predecessor Brad Stevens’s more genteel public persona.

Now, the team will once again welcome a first-time head coach and can only hope that they have the same chemistry. Udoka’s replacement won’t be current team president Stevens, who has rejected any calls to return to his old job and has instead handed over the team’s reigns to assistant Joe Mazzulla. While Mazzulla is well-regarded in coaching circles, the move has now led to an already beleaguered team attempting to sell fans on a coach who was previously arrested for domestic violence.

“When we were considering hiring him as an assistant, I vetted the incidents when he was in college really thoroughly,” Stevens said during the conference. “I believe strongly in Joe’s substantiveness as a person.”

That quote feels unlikely to be the end of this particular story, not with the franchise currently under the media microscope for the least-desirable reasons. For the longest time, the 2022-23 Boston Celtics season was looking like it could be a dream come true now it’s starting to look like it could be a nightmare come to life.