Nets name Jacque Vaughn head coach, end Ime Udoka pursuit
NEW YORK -- The Brooklyn Nets made Jacque Vaughn their head coach Wednesday, promoting Steve Nash's replacement instead of hiring suspended Boston coach Ime Udoka.
Vaughn had gone 2-2 as acting coach since the Nets and Nash parted ways on Nov. 1. His first game as the head coach will be Wednesday night at home against the New York Knicks.
"Jacque's basketball acumen, competitiveness and intimate knowledge of our team and organization make him the clear-cut best person to lead our group moving forward," general manager Sean Marks said in a statement. "He has a proven ability to get the best out of our players, hold them accountable and play a cohesive, team-first style of basketball."
After moving on from Nash, the Nets had been in discussions with Udoka, who along with Vaughn had been a Nets assistant before taking the Boston job. He led the Celtics to last season's NBA Finals but was suspended for at least this season for violating team rules by having a relationship with a female staffer within the organization.
But the Nets decided not to go that route, perhaps unwilling to take on more negative attention while dealing with the fallout from Kyrie Irving's decision to post a link to a film with antisemitic material on his Twitter page.
"Whenever you're bringing anybody in here ... if it's a new head coach or whether it's an intern, it doesn't matter, you're doing your due diligence on everybody's background ... to make sure that you're bringing in the right people at the right time for the right job," Marks said on Nov. 1.
"What changed in the past seven days?" CBS2's Steve Overmyer asked Alex Schiffer, Nets reporter for The Athletic.
"I think a couple things. I think the Kyrie Irving situation got worse instead of better. Obviously they were in the middle of that when Steve Nash was let go, but then he had that press conference on Thursday, that didn't make the situation better," Schiffer said. "The growing fallout from that along with the idea of bringing in Udoka in the midst of all that with more drama? I think it would've been a tough sell to fans."
Irving will serve the fourth game of what will be at least a five-game suspension without pay on Wednesday that the team gave him for refusing to say he had no antisemitic beliefs.
"Does Jacque Vaughn make the Nets better or does he just stop the boat from rocking more?" Overmyer asked.
"Jacque Vaughn's already gotten the Nets' defensive rating up 10 points. It was 30th in the league earlier this season, now they're up to 20th. I think that's the big question. What does Jacque Vaughn bring aside from stability?" Schiffer said.
Vaughn is in his seventh season as a Nets assistant and is considered a calming force and a voice of reason. He replaced Kenny Atkinson on an interim basis in March 2020, just before the season was suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic, and coached Brooklyn during the season restart in Walt Disney World.
Vaughn went 7-3 in 10 games and led the Nets to the first round of the playoffs, even though they were without the injured Kevin Durant and Irving, as well as other key players who didn't join them for the restart.
The Nets then hired Nash, even though he had no coaching experience, and kept Vaughn as an assistant. Nash led Brooklyn to the playoffs in each of his two full seasons, but the team made a change after getting off to a 2-5 start.
