Ime Udoka isn't surprised the Celtics made it to the championship without him

Celtics

Make udoka led the Celtics to the NBA Finals in his only season in Boston, but his team fell to the older, wiser, Steph Curry-led Golden State Warriors.

The Celtics continued to pursue their goal and ended up within the finals again last yr without Udoka. With a revamped squad and a brand new style below Joe Mazzulla, The Celtics took home their record 18th NBA title last season.

Udoka, who now coaches the Houston Rockets, said he was blissful to see the Celtics win the championship, adding that he could see it happening.

“Definitely happy for them and not surprised,” Udoka said before his Houston team lost 109-86 to the Celtics on Friday night. “It came anyway, so we took the steps they took before I got there and then the year I was there.”

“Obviously the failure this year spurred everyone to come back and motivated them to succeed even when they got there,” he added. “So I’m really happy for them and I’m not surprised by the leap they’ve made.”

The things that held the Celtics back in that 2022 Finals loss worked of their favor within the 2024 Finals win, Udoka said. The once green and inexperienced Celtics developed into experienced champions. That's how they played against Dallas last yr.

“The growth is not just physical, it is the experience that they have gone through and had to go through,” Udoka said. “But yeah, IQ and experience are one and the same and just being there in moments that hurt us in this series.”

“You could see that with some of the guys that were at Golden State, but once you got over the hurdle of being there the first time, you knew what was coming,” he continued. “On a physical level, they obviously have all the tools and have taken on all the leadership roles. So the IQ and the experience really pushed her to take the next step.”

Television cameras captured Udoka exchanging a number of words with Payton Pritchard throughout the game. Pritchard and Udoka are each from Oregon. The Celtics guard said the connection with Udoka began before the coach got here to Boston.

“It’s all love,” Pritchard said with a broad smile. “A lot of these guys I've known since I was a really little kid, so they've seen me start playing basketball since I was about 10 years old. So there’s a lot of love there and it’s like a family.”

Mazzulla, a former Udoka assistant, said he inherited some knowledge from his predecessor.

“When you can work for a guy who has been in the league for so long, you can understand the ups and downs of a season,” Mazzulla said. “The way he navigated the NBA locker room, the way he navigated an NBA season, there are things he just had a knack for because of the way he played and the way he coached has, so you can just learn from it.”