While fans of the Boston Celtics have for the most part moved on from the Ime Udoka scandal that nearly upended the start of a much-anticipated season, the team itself has yet to resolve the suspended Celtics head coach’s situation. During this process, the NBA has largely remained in the background, monitoring the situation with minimal public discussion.
But on Saturday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver fielded questions about team player and staff misconduct from the Celtics Wire, including that of Udoka with Boston, Detroit Pistons Assistant GM Rob Murphy, and former San Antonio Spurs guard Josh Primo.
Regarding the Primo incident in which the player allegedly exposed himself repeatedly to a team psychologist in therapy, Silver hinted the league had worked more closely with the team than with Boston or Detroit.
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Silver related that he thinks “most importantly, and one of the things we’re constantly learning is that as a league we have to ensure that for 30 teams that every team is living up to a set of values that are promulgated as part of this league.”
“I think what we’re seeing in society, that there are constantly new areas where we’re appropriately being held accountable. I think the San Antonio Spurs, as I understand it, handled the situation in a very responsible way. But I think as a league and with our 30 teams, the goal, of course, is to prevent these situations from ever happening.”
“That goes to training and appropriate safeguards to put in place,” he added.
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— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) December 19, 2022
“We continue to learn from each other and also learn from outside our league, not just from other sports organizations but from other industries what the best practices are going forward,” emphasized the commissioner.
“That is something we’re very focused on.”
Pressed for specifics in the case of the Celtics’ and Piston’s cases, and whether they warrant expanding existing — as Silver put it — guardrails, the commissioner acknowledged it was indeed an active process.
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— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) December 19, 2022
“I don’t want to ever stand here and claim we’re never going to have incidents when you have thousands and thousands of employees across 30 teams,” Silver said.
“But to the point of the prior question, I think it is the responsibility of the league, working with our teams, to ensure we have appropriate training, safeguards, best practices in place, and that when there is an incident that we all deal with it in the appropriate way. All I can say is that is something we continue to talk to our teams about. We bring in outside experts. We share best practices with each other.”
“I think it’s something that we’re far from perfect, but we continue to improve every year,” he concluded.
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— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) December 19, 2022
While the manner in which each of these situations became public knowledge might have been handled better, each of the organizations in question appears to have done their best within the context in which they occurred would permit.
But as Silver suggested in his words to the press on the matter, the goal is to prevent such incidents from occurring in the first place.
As the league continues to hone those response plans, policies, and best practices for responses, the disinfectant of transparency should be considered a core component as well.
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— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) December 19, 2022
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