Last week, Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka was suspended for the duration of the 2022-2023 season for an improper relationship he had with a team employee. Many speculated on the identity of the woman, while other pundits said the only reason Udoka’s infidelity came to light was because of his race. Fox Sports Radio host Doug Gottlieb pushed back on that assertation.
“The biggest issue is the media coverage of it and even in the Twitter-sphere,” Gottlieb said. “Not just trying to search for ‘What woman was it? Who could it be?’, but we have this ridiculous part of the media. And I am part of the media, you’ll have people go on TV or radio and go ‘the media, the media, the media’, hey dude, if you’re on TV and you’re representing ESPN or ABC, FOX, NBC, you’re part of the media. I’m part of the media. We are part of the problem.
“Twitter is a cesspool,” Gottlieb continued. “And I know, I participate in it. It has its use for me. It has its use for our business. It is a great way to communicate and a great way to read breaking stories and be a news feed. But you have people on Twitter who want to relate this story to the Brett Favre story. Or they want to ask ‘Why are we finding out about Ime Udoka when this has occurred in other places?’. That’s for Twitter, but for people like — I’ll just say it — Stephen A. Smith to question why this has come out, what are the other possibilities?”
Gottlieb continued by saying the idea that Udoka’s transgressions came to light simply because of his race is outlandish, pointing to other scandals that focused on power dynamics.
“It all links to this thing that we’ve become, which is gross, and I think we know what it is, but unless we say it, if we tip-toe around it, it becomes the elephant in the room,” The Doug Gottlieb Show host said. “Ime Udoka is black. I don’t know how to point that out to you, but he is, in fact, a black man and a very successful one at that. So is that the reason he’s being pointed out? No.
“If you’re not looking in the narrow focus of this story you realize whether it’s CBS why they made a change, Fox News, look at all the changes they made there. NBC and the Today Show. Ever heard of Matt Lauer? This is not a new story, this is a new element to the overall story. But this is not a new story.”
