Leadership Is A Responsibility

Ime Udoka, a rookie coach for the storied NBA Boston Celtics, is probably not a household name for most people, but his?brilliance propelled the Boston Celtics to the 2022 NBA Finals, just short of winning a?record 18th NBA championship.?The Celtics struck gold by hiring Udoka. His journey caught my interest as part of my leadership book research six months ago.

Being a former player who had to scrape and claw for every opportunity to stay in the league,?Udoka was a highly regarded assistant for several years. Yet he was consistently passed over by teams with head coach vacancies.

“I can go down the list. ... That was tough because I believe I was ready.” Udoka told Yahoo Sports. Udoka was an assistant coach with three different organizations before the Celtics entrusted him the role at the age of 43.?The path to success for Udoka was a challenging one and each rejection was a disappointment,?he took the process in stride and looked inward.

“You try to improve and you get feedback from the interviews and what your weaknesses are perceived as,” he reflected to Yahoo Sports. “I think for me, it’s easy. My career as a player, a journeyman, a role player that only had two guaranteed contracts out of my whole NBA career, it prepped me for that. It’s always been about putting your head down and grinding it out and figuring out a way to get it done. You don’t place the blame on anybody or any situation. You figure out how to get it done. That’s what I try to really impart on the team, but for me it’s, shake it off and keep it moving.”

Just as I am finishing up my book, there was an unexpected turn of events for both Udoka and the Celtics. He was suspended by the Celtics for the entire 2023 season due to an undisclosed inappropriate workplace relationship.

The new development just further illustrates the concept of leadership as a responsibility. As a leader, Udoka was not only responsible for himself, his family, he also had an awesome responsibility for the young Celtics team which was on the verge of achieving greatness. Instead, his personal indiscretion not only set back or even derailed his career, but also?created significant challenges?for the Celtics organization when leadership was needed the most. It is unclear if he will ever have a chance to lead the Celtics team again, but I hope he will learn from his mistake and recover as a leader. As it is popularly said, It is not how you fall but how you recover that matters.?

Meanwhile, the Celtics, under new coach Joe Mazzulla, seems to be able to stay on course by winning the first two games of the season against two strong competitors. Best wishes.

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