Exclusive: "I needed to get back to the real side of the NBA that I was in as a player" - Ime Udoka opens up on his journey to first-ever NBA Finals with Boston Celtics

Ime Udoka, the head coach of the Boston Celtics is no stranger to adversity and overcoming the odds.

He’s done it as a player. He’s done it as an assistant coach.

He’s now done it as a head coach.

Ime Udoka became the first rookie head coach to win multiple Game 7s but he is just the third head coach to reach the NBA Finals in his first season.

It sounds so easy and so simple, but that’s until you hear his story.

Ime Udoka will try to win his first NBA title as head coach, when his Celtics face the Golden State Warriors, beginning with Game 1 on Thursday in San Francisco. He is the first to acknowledge that the hardships he’s overcome have prepared him for this stage.

And yes, the 44-year old has had quite a journey.

Ime Udoka's journey in the NBA has not been easy at all

Udoka played for 3 different college teams and 15 different professional and semi-professional teams throughout his playing career after going undrafted. He was passed over as a player too many times to count but he kept fighting.

He finally got his break in the NBA during the 2003-2004 season when the Los Angeles Lakers gave him a shot, but he played only 4 games. Up and down to the developmental league, Ime Udoka finally got his big break and big minutes years later in Portland, starting a career high 75 games for the Trailblazers in 2006-2007.

His next move prepared him for his post-playing career. Ime Udoka signed as a free agent with the San Antonio Spurs where he spent parts of 3 seasons (a season with Sacramento Kings was sandwiched between 2 different stints with San Antonio), which saw him getting a first-hand education from Greg Popovich.

After leaving the Spurs for a second time as a player and failing to catch on anywhere else in the NBA, Udoka returned, but this time on Popovich’s staff as an assistant.

He played a big role in the Spurs' NBA title run in 2014 and then he helped convince former Portland teammate and 7-time All-Star LaMarcus Aldridge to join the Spurs in 2015.

The jump which prepared Ime Udoka for his career's next phase

After seven seasons in San Anontio as an assistant, Ime Udoka knew he had to get out of there for his career to grow. It was not an easy decision to leave a winning coach and culture which was an NBA dynasty, having won five NBA titles between 1999 and 2014.

“I’ve stated quite a number of times how beneficial it was to get out of San Antonio and get back to the real NBA. I think 7 years in San Antonio and the foundation and the base of who I am as a coach and who I was as a player was beneficial, but to leave for those two years was probably just as much, if not more invaluable for my preparation to be a head coach, due to a lot of reasons”, Ime Udoka said.

“Like I said, San Antonio is a little bit of a fairy tale, boy scouts, and do whatever you ask. I needed to get back to the real side of the NBA that I was in as a player. I think that helped me navigate some of the things earlier this year”, Udoka said prior to game one of the Finals.

Ime Udoka joined Brett Brown’s staff in Philadelphia, the two knew each other as they were both on the Spurs staff together. Udoka lasted only one season with the 76ers, as Brown was fired.

Ime Udoka was then considered for the Sixers head coaching job but passed over just like he was time and time again as a player.

He went to Brooklyn for a season before becoming the Celtics head coach last June.

“You know, some situations, obviously, in Philadelphia with winning on the line and getting fired after that; Brooklyn, an intense situation with a win-now mentality and superstar players. I think all that bode well for me going forward”, Udoka said of his experiences shaping him.

Ime Udoka's rocky-but-rewarding road saga continues with Boston Celtics

That time in San Antonio also prepared him for a major bump in the road which he hit just months into his first season.

The honeymoon was over.

The Celtics got off to a horrible start and there were people talking whether Ime Udoka would last the entire season. In early January, the Celtics were three games under .500 and in 11th place in the Eastern Conference.

It was ugly.

His time in San Antonio shaped him, especially learning from legendary Spurs head coach Greg Popovich.

He approached the situation similar to his mentor - He would be critical of those questioning his coaching style, and was demanding off his players. He questioned the focus of star players at times and when he could have lost the Celtics locker room, he won them over, and the Celtics got red hot.

The team was finally clicking defensively and everything Udoka was harping on behind the scenes was paying off.

Ime Udoka was named the NBA’s Eastern Conference Coach of the Month for the month of February 2022 after the team finished 9-2 during the month, becoming the first rookie head coach in Celtics franchise history to garner the honor.

He was named Eastern Conference Coach of the Month for the months of March and April 2022 as well after the team finished 15-4 during the final two months. Udoka is the first coach to receive the award in consecutive months since Doc Rivers in 2008.

Boston stayed hot in the playoffs and have made an incredible run to the NBA Finals.

Greg Popovich reaches out to Udoka

Popovich reached out to Udoka multiple times and even left a voicemail on his cellphone earlier this week on Tuesday. Pop also called and left a nice voicemail for the Celtics head coach at the start of the playoffs, as well.

The two pals have texted back and forth, and at some point will talk, but the NBA season is a grind and especially now in the NBA Finals, there is very little time as he prepares his Celtics for a tough series against the Warriors, a dynasty in the NBA.

“He has helped me throughout my career, and he understands what the situation is, being through it so many times himself; that he's pretty similar to me as far as that, not trying to bother anybody. And so I know he's supporting, and I've heard through other people. We'll talk at some point”, Ime Udoka said of Popovich.

Udoka knows Popovich will be watching, and perhaps he will lean on some of that wisdom that he’s picked up over the years or even the dinner the two shared when their teams faced each other during the regular season.

“I think once you get out of the initial media circus and the intensity and how everything is much more exaggerated, obviously it's not much different when you get on the court. You have guys that are young but have been through a few Eastern Conference Finals already, and our path this year, you know, two Game 7s and playing some high-level teams and taking a tough route, I think that's prepared us more than anything”, Ime Udoka said prior to game one of the NBA Finals in San Francisco.

“I coached in two Finals my first two years in the league and got to the Conference Finals as a player myself. As coaches, we've been through it and won championships ourselves. We can kind of give advice on what's to come”, Udoka added.

"But once we get out there, what's really been good about our group is they are not caught up in the moment, the Game 7s, playing on the road. You see our record, and more so than anything, it's just basketball at the end of the day. That's what we try to stress, and that's the benefit of our group being so young and approaching it that way”, Udoka further spoke about his experience with the Celtics.

Ime Udoka is once again the underdog as the Warriors are expected to win the NBA Finals, but he plans to overcome the odds just like he has done his entire life.