The Nets have a head coach and one fewer potential scandal.
The Nets, who reportedly were zeroing in on suspended Celtics coach Ime Udoka, instead have removed the “interim” label on Jacque Vaughn, who is now the head coach.
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The Nets have gone 2-2 in four games since Steve Nash was fired, but under Vaughn, they have held their opponents under 100 points for three games straight – the only three times they have done so this season.
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Bringing in Udoka – whom the Celtics suspended for a full year after a reported improper relationship with a female Celtics staffer – would have added one more headache.
In October, speaking on ESPN’s “First Take,” Stephen A. Smith theorised that one of the reasons the Celtics suspended Udoka rather than firing him was that they were worried he would become the head coach of the rival Nets.
“I believe part of the reason he was suspended, not fired, is because the Boston Celtics did not want him to end up in Brooklyn,” Smith said.
“I believe that Ime Udoka, had he gotten fired, with all the stuff that happened — remember, the operative words were ‘consensual relationship, violation of organisation policy!’ So because it’s that, it’s about your behaviour, which we don’t endorse, as opposed to a crime.
“And because there was nothing that was put out there that said it was a crime, I believe that if Ime Udoka had been fired by the Boston Celtics, the Brooklyn Nets would’ve fired Steve Nash and brought that brother back and he would be the coach for the Brooklyn Nets right now. That’s how emphatic I am about this.”
This story originally appeared on the New York Post and has been reposted with permission
