From Udoka’s introductory press conference:
"They're going to allow me to coach them, push them," said Udoka, who was introduced alongside Brad Stevens, now the Celtics' president of basketball operations, and owners Wyc Grousbeck and Steve Pagliuca at a news conference at the team's practice facility Monday morning. "They know I'm going to be on their $#%!, and that's what they like about me, they've asked me about that. They want to be pushed, they want to be directed toward winning, and you expect that from your stars.
"I'm not worried about our group worrying about hard coaching," Udoka said. "They are asking for that, and it's something I'm going to bring to the table."
To me calling out Jaylen is very consistent with what he said he’d do, and something that the players indicated they supported when he was hired. Now, it’s certainly possible that upon receiving this style of coaching they find out they were wrong and don’t like it, and/or it doesn’t successfully motivate them, but it raises zero issues with me. I could see it wearing thin eventually, but theoretically everyone is on board with tough love.
I don't necessarily see those as being the same. I think the Belechick example is a good one. He's a very tough coach, and he holds guys accountable. But, he shares almost nothing with the media. To me, it's the difference between hard coaching, and public shaming.
I didn’t say it was the same. I said it was consistent. There’s no one mold for “hard coaching”, but calling guys out publicly is definitely a version of it that we’ve seen before (as you mentioned, from Doc for example).
I especially don’t mind it happening a little early in his tenure. There are a variety of ways to get on a player, if that’s your style, and some ways will work differently for different players. The only way to find out what works is to try them. Perhaps Jaylen needs to be called out in a press conference a couple times a year to reset his focus. The problem would be if Jaylen responds poorly to it and Udoka keeps it up, but until we see results one way or the other, I’m not judging.
Fact is Jaylen has had uneven performances this season. He’s my favorite Celtic, one of my top 3 of all time, so I’m all ready to make excuses about his knee and Covid for his play, or just write it off as four games. But perhaps it’s something else, and Udoka should have better info than I. I doubt Ime has any other goal than getting the best of if Jaylen, so as someone who wants Jaylen to be a Celtic champion, I’m open to him trying anything that’s not actually abusive.
Topic: Calling Guys Out In The Media (Read 9938 times)