The reigning Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics suspended coach Ime Udoka after a months-long investigation by an outside law firm that found multiple violations of team policies but did not point to a larger cultural problem of sexual misconduct, owner Wyc Grousbeck said Friday.

“We go to great lengths … to run the organization with the central core value of respect and freedom in the workplace from harassment or any unwelcome attention,” Grousbeck said at a news conference. “This feels very much, to me, like one of a kind. That’s my personal belief. But I’ll have to verify that.”

Neither Grousbeck nor president of basketball operations Brad Stevens would elaborate on the specifics of the violations or the private report that was delivered to the team two days ago. But a person with knowledge of the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the details were not made public, told The Associated Press that it involved an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the organization.
— Associated Press, 9/23/22

Not to make light of anything inappropriate and/or possibly adulterous, but this whole situation could have been handled better. It’s not like the Boston Celtics were in uncharted waters navigating through a sex scandal. There are dozens of politicians, executives, entertainers who’ve been busted, maybe took a leave of absence, and eventually went right back to work.

But not the Celtics. They are in Boston surrounded by woke media writers who demanded a head on a spike for the indiscretion. The Celtics “zero tolerance” policy is one that would have been ignored by almost every political and business institution in the country. It certainly would have negotiated-down yet, ironically, it was a mostly white Boston sports media who went out of their way to make sure the city and nation knew Udoka’s actions would not be tolerated. There would be no insufficient multi-game suspension.

Ime Udoka had to go and the Celtics, very publicly, fired him.

Udoka connected with his young players because he was himself a former player of 12 years, among which he played for the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks, Portland Trail Blazers, San Antonio Spurs and Sacramento Kings. He was later an assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers and Brooklyn Nets before being hired as the head coach of the Boston Celtics in 2021. In his first year with the Celtics, they came within two wins of winning the NBA title. The 2022-23 was expected to be very special.

Instead, he was seemingly banished from his profession for committing a selectively-enforced ultimate crime against women. Instead of a team suspension, an example was made of him in Boston and Udoka was shown the door. The Celtics gave the keys of the car to Joe Mazzulla, a 34-year-old with zero NBA head coaching experience.

That didn’t sit well with many people within and outside of the organization and the double standard was obvious to anyone with a set of functioning eyes, especially when ominous clouds hovered over the team during the NBA Conference Finals against the Miami Heat.

I have said it countless times over these airwaves and I’ll repeat it one last time. All of us in this business know plenty of folks in the world of sports or sports teams that had stuff going on in the office. It was an HR matter. We know people who have been fired for the same thing. We never heard a word. But now, everybody knows what Ime Udoka did because of the way the Boston Celtics handled it.
— Steven A. Smith, ESPN First Take, 5/22/23

Smith reminded his audience that mistakes the inexperienced Mazzulla made during the playoffs were ones his head coach predecessors in Boston would have not have made. Clearly preparation was lacking and while “living in the moment” sounded cute, there is no substitute for preparing a team for “situations” that only experience brings.

His players, also muzzled by the politically correct shroud in Boston, let glimpses of the frustration slip, especially when the unmentionable happened as the playoff were set to begin: Ime Udoka was hired to be the new head coach of the Houston Rockets.

The hiring comes nearly three months after the Boston Celtics suspended and dismissed Udoka for an improper workplace relationship, a situation the Rockets investigated with the league office and with the Celtics, among others, before making the job offer, sources told ESPN.

The hiring is a coup for Rockets general manager Rafael Stone, who helped sell Udoka on the franchise’s young talent, salary cap space and chance at winning the draft lottery and selecting generational talent Victor Wembanyama.

“Ime’s intelligence, drive and toughness were the traits we were looking for in a coach to lead our team through this next stage of our development as we strive to become a champion,” Stone said in a statement. “We were honored to have the opportunity to speak to multiple outstanding candidates throughout the interview process and felt that Ime’s vision best aligned with the goals the Fertitta Family and myself have for the future of the Rockets.”
— ESPN, 4/24/23

Obviously, “Ime’s intelligence, drive and toughness” was something missing on the Celtics bench during the season and especially when it was needed most: during the NBA Playoffs where the they were pushed to Game 7 twice against teams they should have easily beaten. Udoka’s hiring couldn’t have come at a worse time for the younger players on his former team trying to make a playoff run without him.

This locker room never got over Ime Udoka’s dismissal as head coach These players did not accept the organization’s reasoning for doing it. They thought it was a wild overreaction. There were a lot of the people on the outside who thought it was an overreaction. That it was an HR matter. This team talking with management never got any more answers than the public was getting on this. That doesn’t mean they haven’t accepted Joe Mazzulla as head coach, but this is a team that really believed in Ime Udoka and had a strong connection with him.
— Adrian Wojnarowski, ESPN, 5/22/23

But none of that mattered to the Celtics organization.

The Boston Globe had to be reassured. The liberal academics and institutions that pepper Boston like chicken pox had to be placated. The social elite and activists, many of whom don’t even know Boston has a basketball team or anything about the sport, had to be made to feel safe. And the team had to shut up and deal with it.

In the end, Steven A Smith had it right. Justice was served on the Boston Celtics organization. The team not only lost their last playoff game of the season, but it came in a humiliating fashion for all the world to see.

The team and their fans had to suffer and it was for a greater good, right?

Welcome to the real world, or what’s left of it….

An open letter to SpaceX decrying CEO Elon Musk’s recent behavior has sparked open discussion among the company’s employees in an internal chat system. Employees are being encouraged to sign onto the letter’s suggestions, either publicly or anonymously, with a signed version of the letter to be delivered to the desk of SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell.

“Elon’s behavior in the public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks,” the letter states. “As our CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX — every Tweet that Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company. It is critical to make clear to our teams and to our potential talent pool that his messaging does not reflect our work, our mission, or our values.”
— The Verge, 6/16/22

Cause… effect….

SpaceX fired at least five employees for their role in drafting and circulating the open letter, according to Reuters, citing two people familiar with the matter.

Boom!

The letter, first reported by The Verge, called Musk “a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment” and urged the company to “publicly address and condemn” his behavior. News that people had been fired over the letter was first reported by the New York Times on Thursday, citing three employees familiar with the matter and an email from SpaceX president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell.

In the email, which has also been seen by The Verge, Shotwell said the firm had investigated and “terminated a number of employees involved” with the letter. Shotwell wrote that the letter made employees “feel uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied,” adding that SpaceX has “no need for this kind of overreaching activism.”
— Forbes, 6/17/22

Who, besides self-absorbed woke activists, thought embarrassing and intimidating the boss into respecting and acting on their “values” was a good thing?

Those who are currently looking for new jobs and will have to answer to their next employer why they thought a public act of insubordination is something they can expect in the future.

As shared here previously, the workplace environment is now shifting back to hiring the grateful who just come to work to do a job and help the company be successful. Those who deem it their duty to inflict their personal “values” upon the rest of the company are being purged. It’s a harsh lesson that will follow disruptors in their attempt to find new work and rightfully so.

Some need be reminded the First Amendment gives us freedom of speech however people are not forced to hear and obey.

If these activists believe they can run a business (they didn’t have the smarts or money to create) better than the boss, have at it and compete. Other than that, shut and and do the job. If you can’t, you risk it all and thank Elon Musk for issuing the tough love he shouldn’t have had to waste value time to impose in the first place.

It’s been seven months of people quitting their jobs at near-record highs, and businesses are continuing to complain that they just can’t find workers to fill open roles. Many have termed it a labor shortage, although five decades of declining wages argue that it’s more of a wage shortage. Even the narrative that jobs are plentiful and for the taking is not quite right: There are certainly still people not getting hired because of the mismatch between the primarily low-wage roles hiring and workers’ qualifications.
— Business Insider, 12/8/21

Depending on where you get your “news”, you’ll hear a variety of explanations of why so many are electing not to return to the workplace. There’s also one very logical (and unmentioned) reason why so many are not going to go back: who would want to be immersed in an intolerant, politically-correct, woke space where it’s become praiseworthy, commonplace for some to try and cancel the hand that feeds you?

As far as Gen Z is concerned, it’s been their way or the highway on campus; so why should corporate life be any different? Unsurprisingly, Gen Z has rolled into the office place with demands. Bosses report employees asking for time off for period cramps or anxiety. They pressure their employers to take a stand on contentious social issues like BLM. And, if they don’t get their way, they’ll simply walk out. Workers in the previous generation — millennials — have served as a test case of how this mindset wreaks havoc on the workplace.
— New York Post, 6/11/22

Most older experienced employees would just want to do their job and do it well, but they’d be surrounded by young know-it-alls who demand mental health days, demand others be considerate of their feelings when they insist on doing things wrong and the expected negative results subsequently happen.

Monster.com’s 2022 global report found “more than 9 out of 10 employers (nationally) say they are struggling to fill positions because of a skills gap, and 29% agree that the skills gap has increased compared to a year ago.” And it’s hurting the economy, nationally and locally.
— Yahoo News, 6/3/22

Irrelevant issues like preferred pronouns and sexual preferences become dominate distractions that detracts from productivity and the lack of professionalism becomes something quite unattractive to anyone who just wants to do a job.

Call it a disruptor, but today’s younger woke employees have broken the normal employment cycle and you see it almost everywhere. Corporations that have long established a tradition of stability are tanking because the introduction of social issues, unrelated to their products, and have made them not worthy of their customers’ hard-earned dollars. We’re past the point of young people screwing up the business and older people can’t be paid enough to come in to clean things up.

Leaders should also consider the fact that this group has no desire to come back to work. Their main reasons for leaving are retirement and sickness, although the research shows that this started at least two years before the pandemic and wasn’t affected much by the pandemic itself.
— Management Today, 6/1/22

Woke work environments have been around for more than the last two years.

One small upside of the coming “hurricane” is that a lot a companies will have the perfect excuse to purge the woke and once a good percentage are gone, mature employees may reenter the workplace to do the job they’re hired to do.

The transformation of America is underway.

UPDATE (validation)

It takes ten years or so for the aforementioned cycle to be verified. Gen Z has sped up the professional assessment of their true “value”.

In a Dec. 2023 study, the New Jersey-based research group Intelligent surveyed 800 U.S. managers, directors and executives who are involved in hiring. The respondents reported that Gen Z candidates struggle to pick up professional cues, causing 39% of employers to favor hiring older candidates.

About 60% of employers said they are willing to offer more benefits and pay higher salaries to attract older workers rather than recent grads. For that same reason, 48% of employers are offering remote or hybrid positions to older employees and 46% are willing to hire overqualified candidates, according to the new study.

One in five employers reported that recent college grads are generally unprepared when it comes to interviewing for a job. More than half of employers surveyed said Gen Z candidates struggle the most with eye contact during interviews.

Candidates in this age group also ask for unreasonable salaries and have dressed inappropriately for in-person interviews, according to about half of the study respondents.

Even virtual interviews have posed issues, with 21% of employers reporting that some candidates refuse to turn on their cameras for the interview. Nearly 20% of employers said they’ve even had a recent college grad bring a parent to an interview.

Two in three employers reported that Gen Z employees are unable to manage their workloads, while about 60% said they are frequently late to work and often miss assignment deadlines.

Sixty-three percent of employers consider Gen Z employees to be entitled, while 58% said they get offended too easily and are overall unprepared for the workforce. Employers also noted that their youngest employees lack professionalism, do not respond well to feedback and have poor communication skills.

Almost half (47%) of employers in the survey said they’ve fired a recent college graduate.
— New York Post, 1/6/24

Hire wisely.

Not all were in positive anticipation.

Ricky Gervais’ Netflix Special Draws Criticism for Graphic Jokes Mocking Trans People
Ricky Gervais Netflix Special Draws Fire for Graphic Trans Women Jokes
With Ricky Gervais’s new special, Netflix yet again suffers transphobic fools
Ricky Gervais Netflix special condemned by LGBTQ groups for ‘anti-trans rants masquerading as jokes’
The Difference Between Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais

The puddle that were once snowflakes are crying out in horror because someone publicly mocked them and an entertainment company shared that mocking with the world.

Let’s not forget, the majority of the woke are the phony-brave, perpetually-aggrieved who gleefully harass and even issue social media-tolerated death threats behind the anonymity and convenient distance of social media, bolstered by the power of hundreds-to-thousands of social media followers whom they’ve never met and will probably never be in the same room with.

Meanwhile those of us, who chose not to change the channel, watched Ricky Gervais; not just because we wanted to hear his jokes but like the Golden Globes Awards, were more entertained by the sanctimonious in his audience who were the targets and their reaction. This is no different and quite entertaining.

A place that believes in the power of creativity to create the change we want to see in the world.
A place that creates behaviour change at scale for business and society.
A place that welcomes ‘Adam&everyone’ and helps them be the best they can be.
A place that recognises its impact on the world and is changing for the better.
— adam&eveDDB

An ad was created by adam&eveDDB and approved by client John Lewis Finance.

What could go wrong…?

The ad was… “misleading”.

Retailer John Lewis has been forced to pull an advert featuring a young boy dancing in a dress after a watchdog branded it ‘potentially misleading’.

However, its removal had nothing to do with the uproar the ad caused, with many clutching their pearls at the mere sight of a young boy wearing a dress and make-up and merrily dancing around the house to Edge Of Seventeen (the AUDACITY), but instead was down to the damage depicted in the ad not actually being covered by the company’s insurance it was promoting.

According to the company, the advert has been withdrawn after the Financial Conduct Authority deemed it ‘potentially misleading’ and would cause ‘confusion’ about the company’s home contents insurance offering.
— Metro (UK), 10/28/21

Wow. A company actually pulling an ad because a product may not be all they say it is.

So, it the ad was yanked because it was “misleading” as the damage the boy was doing in the video wouldn’t necessarily be covered under a home insurance policy; NOT because the viewing public may have been outraged that a young boy would be made up and dressed as a girl in a woke advertisement, period.

Exactly who has been misled?

Cops has been canceled. Paramount Network has decided to dump the long-running true-crime reality TV series. Cops was already pulled from the cable channel after nationwide protests of police brutality and racism following the death of George Floyd on May 25.

Now the network confirms the series has been permanently shelved. “Cops is not on the Paramount Network and we don’t have any current or future plans for it to return,” a network spokesperson said.
— Entertainment Weekly, 6/9/20

Of course when it comes to Hollywood and money, fingers are always crossed behind the back.

Three months after it was canceled at Paramount Network, Cops is back in production — but is not set to air anywhere in the United States.
— Hollywood Reporter, 10/1/20

And now, the show is coming back home exclusively to Fox Nation with a hitch… the trailer for the October premiere shows only white people as those targeted by the police. (“white Hispanics”, alligators and kittens don’t count.)

It’s only a matter of time before Fox Nation is accused of discriminating against blacks.

We’re still eagerly awaiting an episode or two of a Cops episode shot in Beverly Hills. Then again, we all know why they won’t go there.

One such example occurred on so-called “BBC Comedy” where a stand up comic by the name of Sophie Duker dryly joked about killing white people, just to have the program’s host Frankie Boyle and other white guest uncomfortably laugh and/or nod along… because we all know what could have happen should they dare question the Black Lives Matter concept.

It must be nice to tear down a welcoming society that allows an immigrant to use her college education to become a stand-up comic.

Duker was born in London to first-generation immigrants from West Africa. Her mother is from Cameroon and her father is from Ghana. She studied French and English at Wadham College, Oxford. She joined the Oxford Imps in her first year at university.
— Wikipedia

Maybe evil white people should think twice before allowing immigrants from The Shithole World to enter and breed ignorant, ungrateful, privileged offspring in their countries.

“Kill white people”.

Now, that’s gratitude and shame on Frankie Boyle and so-called comedienne Sara Pascoe for laughing along. When the mob comes for them at their homes, we’ll see how funny they think it is.

One such recent example is Chicago WGN’s Courtney Gousman who saw something she found personally objectionable, had her phone close by and just had to take a picture for sharing on the appropriate platforms.

   
As Gousman lists herself as a reporter, one would think her FIRST instinct would be to verify before using her media megaphone to jump to a public conclusion; a conclusion that includes the volatile topic of race.

Not that we would need to divulge sophisticated industry techniques Gousman surely has at her disposal, but a very simple online search with the cryptic words “gas pump noose magnet” produced an almost instant culprit.

The next question a responsible reporter would ask BEFORE making public declarations that would have anyone driving a blue pickup truck with a gas pump noose magnet (available at your neighborhood Dollar General) the possible target of retaliation, just what is this symbol all about?

It appears to be in protest of high gas prices and those who share this imagery are not those who wish to use it to terrify people like Courtney Gousman and induce Klan flashbacks but to protest… “oil”.

   
There are stock photo websites where you can find a variety of designs with “the cost of gasoline” in vibrant colors on this “gas prices are a noose around our necks” theme. You can even find the magnets on eBay!

BTW — “Big oil” is not exactly on the conservative, right wing, Republican protest to-do list. These graphics are clearly created with environmental, save-the-planet, left wing sentiment in mind.

Gousman’s WGN bio says she is “educating the community on little known-facts and shedding light on issues that are often overlooked”. She clearly dropped the ball on this one, IF educating and shedding light” was really the goal here.

Again, most responsible journalists understand the importance of verifying a story before publishing for the masses. In a market as big a Chicago, that responsibility is even more important. Courtney Gousman’s instant-gratification to take her black activism to social media first should be troubling because her initial instinct was also to imply the driver of the blue pickup was an insensitive racist.

We’re also assuming Gousman’s use of the hashtag #wideawake instead of #woke was supposed to be a cutesy, play on words. Again, she missed the mark by a mile.

Yes, the noose is a dog whistle (ironically in Jussie Smollett Chicago) but the fact the magnet made her “furious, afraid, and sick to my stomach” is her problem. She should take it to those who decided such imagery was necessary to make their point and not jump to a kneejerk, nefarious conclusion. She had to turn it into a mini-lecture on lynching was even more shameful especially because her first impulse was to post before doing a sliver of research, just to brush it off with “no matter how it’s explained away because it’s plastered on a gas tank” in an effort to state no disagreement with HER feelings are relevant.

It’s sad how many so-called professional journalists are overdue for a refresher course in the very basics.