Jayson Tatum Shows His Respect for Houston Rockets Head Coach Ime Udoka
Houston Rockets head coach Ime Udoka has surprised a lot of people with how he has the team playing so far this season, but stars like Jayson Tatum are not as surprised.
On a recent episode of the Point Forward Podcast hosted by Evan Turner and Andre Iguodala, the Boston Celtics superstar gave an inside look into his experience with Udoka and talked a bit about how much he respects his former coach.
"I've got so much love and respect for Ime," Tatum said. "People forget we were 23-24, and we were the 11 seed. We finished the season 26-3 and we went on a crazy run."
Former Boston Celtics coach Ime Udoka has brought his mentality over to the Houston Rockets this season.
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Tatum averaged 27 points and 8 rebounds in his one season coached by Udoka in the 2021-22 season and attributed a lot of his individual success, as well as the team's success, to the mentality that Udoka brought.
"That mentality every day of him saying stuff like 'we are a track team; we are not running from nobody'... For that message to come from the top, from the coach, I think it just ran through everybody."
Now, Udoka has brought that killer mentality to a Rockets team who definitely feels like they have something to prove after last year. After their disappointing 22-60 record last season, the Rockets will be looking to prove all of their doubters wrong, and they are off to a solid start.
Udoka and the Rockets will be back in action on Wednesday against Desmond Bane and the Memphis Grizzlies. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. from the Toyota Center.
