Stephen A. Smith thinks the Boston Celtics ought to apologize to Nia Lengthy — and that that apology is means overdue.
The ESPN host addressed how the Celtics dealt with Ime Udoka’s suspension as head coach final fall and the way their actions impacted his former accomplice, Lengthy, in a video posted on his podcast, “Know Mercy with Stephen A. Smith,” on Friday.
“What in regards to the sister, the Black girl named Nia Lengthy, that was thrown to the wolves by having all of this publicized?” he mentioned within the clip. “Did she deserve that?”
In September 2022, the Celtics suspended Udoka as head coach for what was reported to be an improper relationship with a workforce worker. The workforce held a press convention addressing the suspension that month.
Smith argued that the Celtics’ press convention inadvertently embroiled Lengthy, a beloved actor, right into a media circus. Udoka and Lengthy had been collectively for 13 years and share a son, Kez, 11. They've since damaged up.
“In case you point out him and one other girl, inevitably, she’s going to come back up,” he mentioned about Lengthy. “How come they simply left her on the market standing on her personal? I'll all the time defend her. I'll all the time defend her on this situation.”
He added, “To have a press convention and put his enterprise, tacitly or in any other case, on entrance road, you didn’t take into consideration Nia Lengthy in any respect.”
The actor thanked Smith for “his help” within the feedback part of an Instagram submit the place he shared the clip.
Smith known as out the Celtics for internet hosting the press convention in one other clip, charging that race performed a task in the best way the workforce handled Udoka, who's Black.
“I’ve been masking sports activities for 30 years, I've by no means seen a press convention to handle someone’s suspension, and everybody knew due to the leaks that preceded the press convention ― despite the fact that they didn’t say a lot within the press convention ― that it was about his sexual relationship,” he mentioned.
In the course of the workforce’s press convention in September, Brad Stevens, president of basketball operations, addressed hypothesis that was ramping up on Twitter on the time about which feminine employees member of the Celtics may need been concerned within the scandal.
Stevens shared an emotional message of help for the ladies within the group.
“We've quite a lot of proficient ladies in our group, and I believed yesterday was actually exhausting on them,” he mentioned. “No one can management Twitter hypothesis and rampant bullshit, however I do suppose that we as a company have a duty to ensure we’re there to help them now. Lots of people have been dragged unfairly into that.”
The workforce didn't share particulars surrounding the circumstances of Udoka’s suspension on the time, however that he violated workforce insurance policies.
Lengthy has since criticized the Celtics for internet hosting the press convention. She additionally shared her disappointment that nobody from the group had reached out to her amid their public statements about supporting Celtics feminine staffers.
“In case you’re within the enterprise of defending ladies — I’m sorry, nobody from the Celtics group has even known as to see if I’m OK, to see if my kids are OK. It’s very disappointing,” the actor informed The Hollywood Reporter in December.
“I feel essentially the most heartbreaking factor about all of this was seeing my son’s face when the Boston Celtics group determined to make a really non-public scenario public,” she added. “It was devastating, and it nonetheless is. He nonetheless has moments the place it’s not simple for him.”
Udoka, now the pinnacle coach of the Houston Rockets, mentioned throughout a information convention this week that he has since been in counseling along with his son after information of the scandal broke to “assist him enhance the scenario that I put him in.”
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