ESPN's Stephen A. Smith likens Celtics suspending coach Ime Udoka to police brutality

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The Boston Celtics suspended Ime Udoka for the 2022-23 season after it was revealed he had allegedly had an affair with a subordinate in the organization.

However, despite saying he should have been fired (the Celtics took the interim tag off Joe Mazzulla's title earlier Thursday), Stephen A. Smith was not thrilled with how the organization handled the controversy.

Speaking with Jay Williams on "First Take" on ESPN, the two shared the thought that the Celtics "could've handled it differently," but Udoka's race played a role into the matter.

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Boston Celtics coach Ime Udoka reacts during the fourth quarter of Game 6 of basketball's NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors, Thursday, June 16, 2022, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

"They put him on front street. With his personal business, and I happen to know many occasions where that never happened to people who look a lot differently than me or you," Smith said. "This is where I make people uncomfortable, and I don’t give two damns about it. Y’all full of it, and it really ticks me off with that."

Smith added "we cannot absolve Ime Udoka" but did go a step further, going as far as to compare Udoka's suspension to police brutality against Black people in America.

"What we can do is point out the inconsistency. When you talk about Black folks and what we’re really aspiring for, what you’re talking about fair and equal treatment. Not just under the law but period. No matter what may disgust us as a people, if you do to everybody, what you do to us, we gon' go like this: ‘that’s the way it goes.’

Head coach Ime Udoka of the