The Boston Celtics collapsed Sunday night in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals with a 103-84 loss to the Miami Heat.
The team attempted to overcome a 0-3 deficit in the series and make NBA history, and while those efforts fell short, at least a few media users believe it was karma for how the team handled Nia Long during the Ime Udoka cheating scandal in September.
Udoka was suspended for one year after the team discovered he had a relationship with a female staffer. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, an independent law firm found that Udoka used crude language in dialogue toward a female staffer who was his subordinate. Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck said the suspension was a result of multiple violations of team policies.
The ugly fallout between the Celtics and Udoka was plastered everywhere. It ultimately ended with Udoka being fired in February, Joe Mazzulla being promoted from assistant coach to interim head coach, then having the interim title removed, and Long, who was then Udoka’s fiancée and shares an 11-year-old son with him, being dragged into the messy debacle.
Long and Udoka ended their 13-year relationship in December, but she still felt some type of way about how the Celtics handled the situation. She did an interview with the Hollywood Reporter in December to express that the organization never checked on her or their son as Udoka’s affair played out publicly for everyone to see.
“I think the most heartbreaking thing about all of this was seeing my son’s face when the Boston Celtics organization decided to make a very private situation public,” said Long to Hollywood Reporter. “It was devastating, and it still is. He still has moments where it’s not easy for him. If you’re in the business of protecting women — I’m sorry, no one from the Celtics organization has even called to see if I’m OK, to see if my children are OK. It’s very disappointing.”
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith spoke about the situation months after Long.
“I got news for you America: There are plenty of white folks in professional sports that’s doing their thing. And I say that not complimentary,” Smith said on his show “First Take.” “I don’t see the information out about them. Why are we talking about this now? We gotta talk about it because it’s the news. Ain’t none of our damn business, unless you fire him.”
Since the cheating scandal was exposed, Long was viewed as a sympathetic figure by many fans. A certain contingent of social media users continuously brought up karma every time the Celtics faced any sort of hardship throughout the season. Talks of payment for the mistreatment of one of Black Hollywood’s sweethearts increased during the NBA playoffs, especially after the Celtics dug themselves into a 0-3 hole.
Social media users didn’t hold back on the Celtics’ organization after the Game 7 loss.
“In the end, karma has come back to bite the Celtics after the way they handled the Ime Udoka situation,” wrote a Twitter user.
“Celtics lost cause what they coach did to Nia Long,” Twitter user, @ChevySmile wrote.
Twitter users even took a video of Long celebrating the Celtics reaching the NBA Finals last season and re-captioned it.
Not everyone was amused by the karma narrative that was being pushed.
The fans did make a valid point about Udoka’s cheating scandal changing the direction of the franchise. He led the Celtics to the NBA Finals in his first year as a head coach and made a strong bond with the team.
Wojnarowski recently reported that the team was still “not over” how the Celtics handled the Udoka situation, especially how he was fired.
“These players did not accept the organization’s reasoning for doing it. They thought it was a wild overreaction. There were a lot of the people on the outside who thought it was an overreaction. That it was an HR matter,” said Wojnarowski in his report.
Long and Celtics players will have to get over what they view as the mishandling of the situation. Although organizations can sometimes be selective with who they choose to fire and who do not, this is how the sports world works.
In 2012, the University of Arkansas fired head football coach Bobby Petrino after it was discovered he got into a motorcycle accident with a 25-year-old female staffer who was recently hired as the student-athlete coordinator for the team. They were also both married, and the female staffer’s husband worked for the university. Petrino initially didn’t disclose to the university that the staffer was on the back of the motorcycle with him at the time of the accident and that is why he was ultimately fired.
Les Miles was able to stay on as the head football coach at Louisiana State University when it was discovered he made inappropriate gestures towards female students in 2013. The university just banned him from contacting female students before he went on to coach at the University of Kansas.
