According to ESPN senior writer Adrian Wojnarowski, the Boston Celtics are naming assistant coach Joe Mazzulla as their interim head coach for the 2022-23 NBA season. The news comes shortly after the team issued a press release on Thursday evening confirming the season-long suspension of Celtics head coach Ime Udoka for unspecified violations of team policy.
Those violations have been reported elsewhere as being a “consensual relationship” between Udoka and a female employee of the team. Other than the confirmation of the policy violation and suspension of the Boston head coach, the organization has provided no other details.
Mazzulla was among the finalists for the recently vacant Utah Jazz head coaching job before fellow Celtics assistant Will Hardy was hired earlier this offseason. He has been described as a rising candidate in the league for a head coaching vacancy in recent months.
Reacting to the Ime Udoka situation with the Boston Celtics and the social media fallout https://t.co/Y8oudVL2N7
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) September 23, 2022
Mazzulla, however, is not without problematic experiences with ethical issues of his own. CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn related that, while in college, Mazzulla was charged by police with domestic battery in 2009.
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