‘We wish he was here,’ says Boston’s Marcus Smart on the chance the Celtics lose Ime Udoka to the Brooklyn Nets

Not everyone in Boston would be relieved to see Udoka move on.

You might think that the Boston Celtics might feel betrayed by their head coach last season given accountability was Ime Udoka’s calling card and his lack of it led to his season-long suspension for the team’s 2022-23 campaign.

But if you did, you would be wrong in at least some of the cases of players on Boston’s roster. Several such players spoke to the Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach about how they felt regarding Udoka possibly leaving the organization now led by interim head coach Joe Mazzulla to helm the Brooklyn Nets organization in the wake of Steve Nash’s firing, according to multiple sources.

“Obviously, we wish he was here,” related veteran Celtics guard Marcus Smart. “We have no control over that.”