Basketball was rocked with a scandal out of nowhere when a press was released about Ime Udoka’s breaking his code of conduct by conducting a consensual affair with a female employee within the NBA. This resulted in a year-long suspension from the Boston Celtics, though oddly, Udoka’s partner in crime remains anonymous and didn’t get the same consequences as the Boston Celtics coach. Though, the Daily Mail had identified the alleged woman, which is Kathleen Nimmo Lynch – a married mother of three – who worked as the basketball team’s service manager.
However, that shouldn’t distract from the fact that Udoka ruined his image both in his professional and personal life. Naturally, Udoka was apologetic once the news came out about the scandal, “I want to apologize to our players, fans, the entire Celtics organization, and my family for letting them down,” Udoka said in a statement. “I am sorry for putting the team in this difficult situation, and I accept the team’s decision. I will have no further comment out of respect for everyone involved.”
Credit: Single Moms Club
Since Udoka has been in the spotlight, so has his finance, Nia Long. The long-time actress has been linked with the Boston Celtics coach since 2010 and has a son, Kez Sunday Udoka, with Long. The couple would get engaged in 2015, but Long has stated in previous interviews that she doesn’t plan to get married.
As you can imagine, it hasn’t been an easy road for Ms. Long following the huge scandal. In truth, Udoka’s professional basketball career shouldn’t be affected too much as while he did break the code of conduct, his cheating shouldn’t have an impact on his coaching skills. However, when it comes to his relationship with Nia, it certainly shatters the trust and bond that these two have shared since they started dating. Despite the news being released to the public, Long and Udoka are trying to keep their relationship issues private, so there’s no telling what’s going on between them, though given the recent picture upload from the actress, it seems that she’s spending some time apart from her fiance. Indeed, it hasn’t been an easy road for their relationship, and as you can imagine, a shocking wave went through Long’s body when the cheating allegations were revealed:
“I literally felt like my heart had jumped out of my body,” she told The Hollywood Reporter, recalling the media storm. “And then what I found was this tribe of women and men who were standing up for me in a way that felt like I was in this bubble of protection, and that was very comforting.”
Credit: Life in a Year
Long has been able to cope with the complicated process thanks to spending time with her friends. More importantly, the actress is actually making the best from her time away from her finance as Long is currently directing her first feature, along with two acting projects; the first is Missing, a sequel to 2018’s that also stars Joaquim de Almeida and Storm Reid. The second is You People, which also features Eddie Murphy, Jonah Hill, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
As for Ime Udoka, he’s been laying low ever since the cheating scandal was revealed. There have been many discussions on whether it was right to air out this information, given that the Boston Celtics opted to keep the woman’s name quiet, but nothing has progressed further than that. At one point, it seemed that Udoka was going bounce back into another head coaching job quickly as there were reports that the Brooklyn Nets were considering him for the job; however, that eventually went to Jacque Vaughn. There are reports suggesting that the Nets decided to back away from Udoka due to various voices swaying them not to hire him due to the baggage he comes with. Seeing how Udoka’s career goes once his suspension is over should be interesting. There’s been plenty of talks that his image was tarnished because of this incident, but only time will tell.
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