Woj: Rockets found nothing "disqualifying" for Ime Udoka to work in NBA
BOSTON -- The specifics of Ime Udoka's violations of the Celtics' team policies remain somewhat shrouded in mystery. But the Houston Rockets did not find anything in their background search that would keep Udoka from having another job in the NBA.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski discussed the hiring of Udoka on Tuesday and said that the Rockets found nothing "disqualifying" regarding Udoka's employability.
"There was nothing that the league office was telling them precluded Houston or any other team from hiring Ime Udoka, that there was nothing that they found to be disqualifying to work again in the NBA," Wojnarowski said.
Woj also added that the Rockets heard from enough people to make them comfortable with the hire.
"But I think for Houston, certainly they met Udoka in person, they spent time with him, they talked to a lot of people who've worked with him, who've known him, who've vouched for him through the years at different organizations and came to the decision that they would be willing to offer him their head coaching job and make a significant commitment to him contractually," he said.
Udoka led the Celtics to the NBA Finals last year, his first as Boston's head coach, but was suspended shortly before the start of the current season for what the Celtics deemed to have been "multiple violations" of team policy. As if mid-February, though, a report indicated that Udoka was no longer employed by the Celtics at all, thus making him free to sign a contract elsewhere.
The Nets were reportedly interested after firing Steve Nash midseason, only to back away, and the Raptors were also reportedly considering him in their coaching search last week.
