Earlier this week, Ime Sunday Udoka of Nigerian descent was announced as the new Head Coach of the Boston Celtics. He becomes the 18th coach in the organization’s 75-year history and the sixth Black coach.
He joins the likes of Bill Russell, K.C. Jones, Tom Sanders, M.L. Carr and Doc Rivers as Black coaches in the franchise’s illustrious history. He also becomes the first person of African origin to serve as a head coach in the NBA.
Playing for Nigeria
Udoka was born in Oregon, United States, to a Nigerian father and an American mother.
The 43-year-old head coach represented the Nigerian National Team in the 2005 FIBA African Championship where he led his team to earn a bronze medal after he played a vital part in the final game against Algeria where he scored 24 points. In Afrobasket 2011, he led his team to another bronze medal where they defeated Ivory Coast.
He has an older sister, Mfon Udoka, who is also a professional basketball player, she played for the Nigerian women’s national team and in the WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association) for three seasons. According to a 2006 report in the Los Angeles Times, they were the first brother-sister pair to play in both the NBA and WNBA.
According to Celebrity Net worth, Ime Udoka has a net worth of $11.5million.
What they are saying
“It’s his authenticity, his ability to be tough and yet very warm, and it’s his experience,” said Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens. “Not only the experience of playing but being eight through 15 on the roster a lot, and then being in San Antonio all those years, and then the last two years seeing totally different things up close in Philly and Brooklyn is a great thing. We could go on and on with the adjectives, but that really stood out as separating him throughout this process.
“I think that’s kind of what the Celtics should expect, a guy that’s just highly intelligent but also has a toughness, has a way of communicating and connecting with players. He’s just got a great way about him,” Budenholzer, who is currently the coach of the Milwaukee Bucks said.
Player and coaching career
A club statement read: “Udoka joins the Celtics franchise after spending the last nine NBA seasons as an assistant coach between San Antonio (2012-13 to 2018-19), Philadelphia (2019-20), and Brooklyn (2020-21). Teams that Udoka has served as an assistant coach on have qualified for the playoffs in all nine seasons, with one of those years resulting in an NBA championship (Spurs, 2014).
In addition to his coaching experience in the NBA, Udoka was also an assistant coach for Gregg Popovich and the USA Basketball Men’s National Team in 2018.
Udoka played 12 years of professional basketball, including seven seasons in the NBA from 2003-04 to 2010-11. He averaged 5.2 points on 41.7% shooting (35.6% 3-PT), 2.9 rebounds, 1.0 assist and 18.1 minutes in 316 career games with San Antonio, Portland, Sacramento, New York, and the Los Angeles Lakers. Udoka also represented Nigeria in international competition throughout his playing career, earning bronze medals in 2005 and 2011 at the African Championships.”
