Gary Washburn | The Boston Globe NBA Insider

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Gary, I'm intrigued. Before I ask you what you saw and what you heard, what were you expecting when you showed up for Celtics Media Day? Really, I wasn't sure what to expect. Obviously, the players were going to speak. They were going to give their first comments since all the suspension and the dismissal of Imei Igoka went down. It was pretty much that. The players were left to explain how they feel about their coach, their former coach and their feelings. A lot of them were confused, still unsure exactly what he did, unsure about some of the details of the situation. There were things like, hey, this is what's going on. We're going to have to deal with it. But yeah, I'm confused and I don't really know what to say about my former coach other than it's unfortunate.

That was kind of the coherent theme. When you say dismissal, does that mean you don't believe he'll ever be back with the Celtics? I don't think personally they'll coach the team again.

I think that they'll come up with a resolution at the end of the year or during this year to kind of part ways. But I just think they're they're coming to grips with the fact that he's no longer the coach, that Joe Mazzulli is the coach and that change has occurred and they have no idea what happened and why. So then, Gary, what did you hear from the players about how they found out and what the reaction has been over the past couple of days and how they move forward? A lot of them found out as we did through Twitter or through social media.

Oh, my gosh. Now, they found out about the initial thing and then they had a meeting on Thursday with management and kind of let them know what was going on. Besides, you know, the fact that you had a relationship, a consensual relationship with someone else in the organization. They don't know much else.

So they're asking, well, why would this cause a year suspension? Well, some of the details from the investigation that was found out that I was management and ownership knows the players really don't know. And that's what kind of came away. I came away with from the media. There was just the overall confusion from the players as to like what's going on here. OK. You know, coach was, you know, had a relationship with someone organization. What else? What happened?

And, you know, you know, all those details is private. You know, they can not learn those things. It sounds like they want to know a little bit more before they can make a determination of how to feel about it. I think people were looking for them to to, you know, condemn their coach and to say that he was wrong and he messed up. And I think a lot of players are like, before I say that, I want to know exactly what he did wrong. Marcus Smart said, you know, they still love him as a coach and turn things around. But, you know, that was kind of the most supportive statements made. But it seemed like the players were like, we don't really know what to think of this. Sounds like it would behoove the organization to have some type of meeting with the players and offer some more clarity about it. They know how to feel. You know, it's hard to, you know, be angry or upset or resent someone or, you know, think less of someone when you don't quite know what they did.

And I think that's the situation we have here. Has anybody spoken to Emay? No, only the only person who said he spoke with him was the new Interim Coach Joe Missoula. But it sounds like he has not spoken to a player since this situation has occurred. And I don't know if they've told him not to speak with the players or, you know, but it sounds like the players haven't heard from him. You know, it sounds like they've been left, like a lot of us around the organization who follow the team, trying to figure out what the hell happened.

And, you know, that's not a really good and comfortable position. You want your players in when they lose a coach. The whole thing is just very ugly, interesting, sad, unfortunate, you know, a lot of things at this point. We're spending a few minutes with Gary Washburn, who covers the NBA on a national scale, but was at Celtics Media Day on Monday for the Boston Globe.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Gary, why do you think the organization is keeping all of the details under wraps? Well, I think that, one, they want to keep themselves out of any type of trouble in terms of a potential lawsuit from any of the parties involved.

I think the Celtics want to move on. You know, this is, I mean, as you know, I mean, when something like this happens, people are going to examine the entire organization as a whole, the organizational structure. Is the Boston Celtics organization a safe place to work for women? Is this happening around the organization? Are, you know, people dating their subordinates, are subordinates being somewhat pressured into relationships? Is this rampant around?

Is this a toxic environment? You know, we saw the issues a few years ago, the Dallas Mavericks, where, you know, the team president had kind of harassed and approached and kind of threatened women, you know, because of his power and they had to kind of do a house cleaning, you know, but the Celtics feel as if their organization is a safe place to work. They feel like this is a one off. So they want to move forward with this and kind of divulge as less information as possible to protect all the parties. And, you know, I guess their approach is kind of trust us. You know, we know, we know what we're doing. We know we we made this decision and we have all the information to to let to as a reason why you made this decision. This is not some you know, we don't have a axe to grind with email. You, Doka, this is not just about a workplace relationship that was consensual. This is about a lot more that occurred, although they don't want to divulge the information. So it leaves people to try to seek information or listen or the TMZs and all that, you know, where all this stuff is now coming out. So it's a very uncomfortable position for the organization, uncomfortable position for the players.

And at this point, you know, who knows how this is all going to shake out. You have been in this business for a long time. You've been a writer, a reporter.

You've covered the team. And you mentioned TMZ. I even saw some information on E.T., E.T.

online. Because of who Ime Udonka's fiance is, there are going to be other Web sites and outlets who are interested in her personal life. But from your perspective, is it information that you would put out there, the details, or would you rather someone else come out with it? I think if you're going to write something about this and you're going to try to, you know, divulge the details of exactly what happened, you better be right. You know, this is not a situation, you know, there's a lot of Web sites that are going to throw stuff out there because it's juicy. And could it be 75 percent right, 50 percent right? You know, I've read some things that I know that have been reported that are not true.

And so you have to be careful in this situation because you're dealing with people's lives here. I think, you know, the sad part about this whole situation, OK, is the son who is now 11 years old. Right. OK. And he's that's old enough to remember and to digest a lot of what's going on. He is not three or two or, you know, he's not playing in a play trend with toys, Legos or whatever. This kid is 11. OK, so he watches TV, reads, may even have a cell phone, whatever.

OK. And he's got to read this about his father and his mother. I mean, that's the sad part about it. I'm sure he's devastated.

I'm sure a lot of people are disappointed and devastated. So I think in this situation where you have NBA coach, you know, one of the top franchises, an actress who has been in many movies, very much adored and appreciated by many members of the public. You know, well-known that you're going to have, you know, all these websites. It's going to be stuff that springs, information sprinkled out as a reporter. You just have to you have to be right about it.

If not, you leave it alone. And I said, I've read things that I know personally from other websites that are just untrue, that are being reported and people are assuming. And that's the dangerous part. That's what got this whole, you know, people in trouble and people in hot water and women threatened in the first place. When Twitter start to research thinking they could find out who it was, was the woman. And they started posting pictures of female employees for the Celtics, many of whom all but one obviously had nothing to do with it. Right.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Gary Washburn with us from Boston. Well, let's pivot a little bit. Who is Joe Missoula? What do we know about this guy? You know, former West Virginia player played under Bob Huggins at West Virginia was a point guard.

And, you know, then got into, you know, was a Division Two head coach and then worked his way up and with the Celtics assistant coach under Brad Stevens in 2019, 34 years old. You know, a man of faith. And, you know, Amy, you know, he has in his path a 2009 battery charge when he was at West Virginia. That's something that he's had to explain for years. And it sounds like in getting to know Coach Missoula that he has done a complete 180. He's found God. He's a man of faith. He's a man who has just become changed his life since then. So I know and he, you know, he addressed that today and said he's a different person.

And he's asked for forgiveness. He's obviously been able to explain the situation enough to get on NBA coaching staff and now be an NBA head coach. You know, so the question is, well, does one really bad mistake, one misdoing, should that affect your entire career?

You know, especially something you did in college. So, you know, people will have to debate that. You know, he was asked about that today and explained it. And some people are thinking it's a bad look to give him, make him interim coach, giving that transgression that happened 13 years ago. But they think very highly of him. They think very highly of the man that he's become. And, you know, he has the support of the players. He's a positive influence on them. He coached the summer league team a couple of years ago.

So I think they feel like they're in good hands. Although, you know, we're going to have to see no one knows how a 34 year old with no, you know, never played in the NBA. No head coaching experience thrown into a fire like this. It wasn't like a month ago he knew he was going to be coach.

This is something new. We don't know how this is going to translate. Jaylen Brown actually was the subject of some trade rumors, whether there was any substance behind them or whether it was just speculation. But what did he have to say about maybe being flipped for Kevin Durant at some point? I don't think he was happy he said today. You know, he had a discussion with Manson about it.

And it's time to move forward. But he feels good. He feels 100 percent. He feels committed to the organization.

But, you know, it sounded and I know that he wasn't exactly pleased with it. But he understands that the NBA is a business and a lot of players have been traded. You know, Shaq got traded. You know, Kareem got traded. There is a lot of players who have been great, great players who have been traded in their careers. It's not a disrespect to Jaylen Brown to be in trade talks for Kevin Durant.

But I think this whole thing where you go kind of overshadowed that. So I think they're looking at Jaylen and saying, hey, man, like, you know, we need you. And, you know, we'll see what happens with Jaylen and Celtics in coming years when he's up for an extension and whether they're going to invest enough to bring him and make him a Celtic long term.

Because he's got two more years left in his contract. But I think for now, the two sides are committed to each other and he's ready. Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe is with us after hours.

CBS Sports Radio. Lots of information, lots of uncertainty, obviously moving forward. But before I let you go, Gary, I want to ask you about the story that you wrote in the wake of the news first coming out about Emay. You said that he was selfish and unprofessional, which makes sense. But you said that the Celtics needed to be blamed for this mess, too.

How come? Well, I felt like they didn't. First of all, the story was leaked and someone who knew what was going on and knew some of the details leaked the story. So someone from the organization, you know, relates information to someone who either leaked it or someone from the organization leaked the story. You know, I can't guarantee that, you know, it was leaked by someone in the organization, but someone knew something. And secondly, to wait nearly 24 hours after the leak to make a statement really put a lot of women in the organization in a bad spot. And I'm not particularly sure what the Celtics could have done to prevent the speculation, but they could have done something to attempt to prevent it. To attempt to, you know, put some kind of statement, some, you know, thumb up what was going on and what was happening, whether they're, hey, we're investigating it at this point. We have no further comment. You know, respond to these rumors, get ahead of the story and try to protect the women in the organization from this speculation. Now, would that have worked 100 percent?

Maybe not, because obviously the Twitter gangsters are, you know, are going to are going to not, you know, they're going to be nonstop. But I just have nothing, you know, no statement, nothing till about 1030, 10 o'clock, 1030. The next night, I felt like was very unfair to the organization, very unfair. There's a way you probably could have worked big fry could have worded to make it clear that, you know, this is how they feel, whether it's hey, we don't know, but we're looking into it. We're investigating. Well, no further comment. You know, we'll comment when it's appropriate.

Something in the in the daytime when that news cycle is turning and people are at work looking, trying to figure out who it is, what's going on. Respond somehow to try to protect your organization and protect the people in it. Knowing what you know of these players, because ultimately they're the ones who are on the court, how confident are you that they can find their focus and move forward and be ready for the season? Well, they're going to have to because, you know, the season isn't going to stop. You know, this team still has championship aspirations. They still feel strongly about their chances.

So the train isn't going to stop. So they are going to have to get over this and put on, you know, their adult, you know, pants and move forward. And even though it's not going to be easy and there's probably some things they'll be thinking about the back of their mind. Eventually, when practice begins, the ball is on the court and guys are, you know, working hard, running the court, sweating and getting back to what they do. I think it will slowly move, they'll slowly move forward and get ready for the season. I mean, they got a preseason game on Sunday, so there's no time, there's no time to, you know, lament this and cry over spilled milk. It's happened. It's done.

They got to move forward. You can find Gary on Twitter at G Washburn, W-A-S-H-B-U-R-N Globe, so covers the NBA and today with Celtics Media Day for the Boston Globe. And on his Twitter, you can find a lot more information and quotes from the players as they're now speaking out for the first time. Gary, it's always good to connect with you. I know it's been a really long day, so thank you for a few minutes.

Okay, thank you, Amy. Home to all the jaw-dropping moments. Home to all the best plays in the league.

Home to your favorite players from the cities you love. MLB.TV is the home of streaming baseball. Homer away, catch all the MLB action this season with live and on-demand content across all your devices.

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Additional subscriptions may be required. Major League Baseball trademarks used with permission. Home to all the jaw-dropping moments. Home to all the best plays in the league. Home to your favorite players from the cities you love. MLB.tv is the home of streaming baseball. Get your ticket to out-of-market games live or on-demand across all your favorite supported devices.

Homer away. You'll be able to catch all the MLB action this season and gain access to exclusive content. MLB Big Inning brings fans a special live look into the game and delivers the best highlights from games every single day.

That is out of the ballpark. Tune in for select pre- and post-game coverage or check out new MLB originals for a deeper dive into your favorite teams and ballparks. You can even check out inning milestones, in-game details and personalize your app for your favorite team. MLB.tv has extended their content library for more originals like vendors and out-of-the-park films. You can find returning shows like MLB Carded, Baseball Zen and so much more. There's no better place to never miss a moment of the action than with MLB.tv. Stream every game from every team all season long with MLB.tv. Blackout and other restrictions apply. Major League Baseball trademarks used with permission.