Rockets' Ime Udoka Talks Gregg Popovich Influence, Reaction When Getting Celtics Job
Houston Rockets head coach Ime Udoka shared Gregg Popovich's reaction when he earned his first head coaching job for the Boston Celtics in 2021.
“I had interviewed for three or four years and missed a few opportunities that were close,” Udoka said, per The Athletic's Sam Amick. “So I call him on FaceTime and say, ‘Boston offered me the job,’ and he’s on the treadmill walking when he gets choked up. You see him looking, and he starts crying, and he had to hang up. He was like, ‘I’ll call you back.’ He broke down. His voice is cracking. And he hung up.”
Udoka, who was an assistant on the Brooklyn Nets before joining Boston, spent seven seasons on the San Antonio Spurs' coaching staff under Popovich.
On Friday, Popovich stepped down as the Spurs' head coach and transitioned to a president of basketball operations role.
The NBA's all-time coaching wins leader won five championships with San Antonio and finished his career patrolling the sidelines with a 1,422-869 record. Popovich was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023.
The 76-year-old was the oldest coach in NBA history prior to stepping down, with ESPN's Shams Charania reporting that "he decided that he no longer could move forward with the taxing grind" of coaching.
Popovich wasn't able to finish the 2024-25 season after suffering a mild stroke in Nov. 2024, although Charania noted that he's been making "steady progress" in his recovery and has been involved at the team's facility "in recent days."
Udoka is far from the only head coach to be shaped by Popovich, with Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors expressing his gratitude to the veteran coach that he played under for four seasons starting in 1999.
“I just want to say thank you to Pop and to the Spurs organization for everything that they meant to me and my career,” Kerr said, per Amick. “I know this is a pretty emotional day for the Spurs. It is for the entire NBA. The number of people Pop has influenced, the number of coaches in his coaching tree — it’s just incredible."
As for Udoka, he joined San Antonio as a coach immediately after his playing career came to an end in 2012. The former forward spent three of his final four years in the NBA on the Spurs.
In 2019, he left to become an assistant on the Philadelphia 76ers before joining Brooklyn's coaching staff in Oct. 2020. The next year, Udoka was hired by Boston.
The Celtics finished with a 51-31 record and made an NBA Finals appearance in his lone season as head coach before he joined the Rockets in 2023.
After winning just 22 games in the year before his arrival, Houston's win total increased to 41 at the end of his first season. During the team's 2024-25 campaign, they finished with a 52-30 record and compiled the fifth-best defensive rating in the league (via NBA.com).
The Rockets are currently set to face the Golden State Warriors in Game 7 of their first-round playoff series.
While Udoka navigates through Houston's current postseason run, he expressed his gratitude to the man that gave him his coaching start.
