Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta defended his choice to make Ime Udoka the franchise's 16th head coach when meeting with the media at the Toyota Center on Wednesday afternoon.
Udoka, 45, joins the Rockets with an impressive NBA resume across the last two decades. He played for five franchises across seven seasons from 2003-11, then launched a near-decade-long stint as an assistant in San Antonio. He then logged one season as the head coach in Boston in 2021-22, where he guided the Celtics to their first NBA Finals appearance since 2010. Yet Udoka's return to the coaching market came under noted controversy in September 2022.