Ime Udoka says of time in Boston, 'Job not finished'

Ime Udoka was back in the Boston Garden on Saturday night.

This is the man who coached the Celtics to the 2022 NBA Finals in his first year on the bench, then was suspended the following season due to “violations of team policies” (according to multiple reports he had an improper intimate relationship with a Celtics staff member, which led to her lodging complaints with the organization about Udoka). Udoka ultimately was let go, with Joe Mazzulla taking over, and found his new team in the Rockets.

His return brought that uncomfortable history back up. Here is what he said pregame about his time in Boston, via Tim Bontemps of ESPN.

"Job not finished... [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."

The one area of tension was around some players, who felt they were in the dark as to why their coach was suspended just days before the start of training camp.

As for the game, it was all Boston, 145-113. Jaylen Brown had 32 points and Jayson Tatum 27 before he was ejected. The game was close until about midway through the second quarter, when Boston started to pull away and that was it.