Former D’tigers player, Ime Udoka has been appointed as the head coach of the Boston Celtics. He became a frontrunner for the managerial role after he successfully scaled through a two-round interview.
43-year-old Nigerian-American was part of the D’tigers 2005 squad that won the bronze medal at the FIBA African Championship. Udoka scored 24 points to help Nigeria defeat Algeria 88-76 in the final game.
Also, he featured at the 2006 FIBA world championship and helped Nigeria qualify for the second round and he was part of the Nigerian team that secured bronze medal at the 2011 AfroBasket championship.
Udoka who has served at different clubs as assistant coach for nine years started his coaching career as assistant coach at San Antonio. He later moved to the Philadelphia 76ers beforre joining the Nets last offseason.
As a result of his appointment, Udoka became the first coach of Nigerian descent in the history of NBA
The Nigerian basketball team has congratulated him on his unprecedented appointment. While congratulating him, D’tigers tweeted: “Congrats to our very own Ime Udoka. The first Nigerian head coach in NBA History! The Celtics got a good one! Green and white like always.”
