BOSTON — Jaylen Brown found out the news of Ime Udoka’s suspension for the upcoming season with his teammates last week and is still trying to take in the full scope of the situation.
“Initial reactions,” Brown said. “I think I was overall shocked by what was going on, a little confused, a little bit but a lot of the information wasn’t being shared with us or members of the team so you can’t really comment on it.”
Brown acknowledged Udoka’s situation could cast a shadow on the defending Eastern Conference champions as they prepare for training camp this week.
“It’s a lot going on,” Brown said. “Some we could control, some we couldn’t. The best we can say is to move on. Initially, reaction, I was a little confused. No one really has any of the information so it’s difficult to make a comment on how things were supposed to go and how the process went or anything. The best thing we can do is put our best foot forward.”
Brown also gave a vote of confidence for Udoka’s replacement in Joe Mazzulla, who has been with the team since 2019.
“I’m optimistic,” Brown said of Mazzulla taking over. “I believe in Joe, Joe believes in me. In my conversations with him, I don’t think he sees a limit on my game. He’s coming in excited so I’m optimistic.”
The challenge for Brown and the rest of his teammates will be fully understanding the decision to suspend Udoka for at least a year without knowing the full details of the team’s investigation into Udoka.
“I guess in a sense, there’s not a lot of information that’s being shared with me personally or anybody else for that matter,” Brown said. “You can’t really make a comment on it without having all that information. I think that does make it difficult, to answer your question.”
The Celtics begin training camp on Tuesday.
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