{"id":13214,"date":"2023-04-27T13:55:34","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T13:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/?p=13214"},"modified":"2023-04-27T13:55:34","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T13:55:34","slug":"houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets Hire &#8220;Controversial&#8221; Ime Ukoka As New Head Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/ime-ukoka-boston-celtics.jpg\" alt=\"Ime Ukoka, Boston Celtics\" width=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-13215\" title=\"Houston Rockets Hire \"Controversial\" Ime Ukoka As New Head Coach\" \/><strong>Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Houston Rockets have hired Ime Ukoka to be their new head coach<\/li>\n<li>Ukoka was sacked by the Boston Celtics for controversial behaviour <\/li>\n<li>Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta wants fans to forgive and accept Ukoka<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There were a few <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/sports-betting\/basketball\/nba\">NBA<\/a> teams such as the <strong>Houston Rockets<\/strong> and <strong>Toronto Raptors<\/strong> who were keen to secure the services of ex-Boston Celtics head coach <strong>Ime Ukoka<\/strong>. <\/p>\n<p>The Rockets announced on April 26 that they had signed Ukoka as their new head coach.<\/p>\n<h2>Rockets Owner Wants Fans To Be Forgiving <\/h2>\n<p>The Celtics parted ways with Ime Ukoka after reports surfaced that he had breached multiple codes of conduct. While no official explanation was given or confirmation as to what NBA codes of conduct was violated, rumours claimed that Ukoka had an affair with one of the Celtics staff that he had help to hire.<\/p>\n<p>The Rockets launched an investigation into the matter and Ukoka took a break from the NBA but continued to be on the radar of multiple NBA teams. <\/p>\n<p>Houston Rockets owner <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/tilman-fertitta-says-casino-legalization-will-be-an-uphill-battle-in-texas\/\">Tilman Fertitta<\/a><\/strong> said that the Rockets had carried out their own research into Ime Ukoka and were happy to take a chance and appoint him as their new head coach.<\/p>\n<p>Fertitta told fans of the Houston Rockets to be forgiving of Ukoka\u2019s past and not hold a grudge as it would not be a Christian thing to do! Fertitta also said that he had discussions with the NBA and got approval from <strong>NBA Commissioner Adam Silver<\/strong> to proceed with hiring Ukoka.<\/p>\n<h2>Ukoka Ready To Start A New Chapter With The Rockets <\/h2>\n<p>Ukoka faced the media for the first time as the new head coach of the Houston Rockets and said that he had done a lot of counselling and personal therapy to put the incident behind him and become a better person.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position:relative;height:0;padding-bottom:56.25%\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/avPG1aSMmAA?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0?ecver=2\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;left:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In a statement Ukoka said <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I served a suspension and I had to own it, honestly. So, same thing I\u2019ll preach to the guys. I can\u2019t sit here and not take accountability to myself. So it was their right to go about it however they wanted to. And that\u2019s the choice they took.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Ukoka spent just one season with the Boston Celtics but took them to the NBA finals. The 45 year old said he was looking forward to his new role as head coach with the Houston Rockets! Will Ukoka and the Rockets be a marriage in heaven or hell, get the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/us\/legal-us-online-betting-sites\">latest odds on the Rocket making the playoff next season<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Summary Houston Rockets have hired Ime Ukoka to be their new head coach Ukoka was sacked by the Boston Celtics for controversial behaviour Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta wants fans to forgive and accept Ukoka There were a few NBA teams such as the Houston Rockets and Toronto Raptors who were keen to secure the services [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","category-usa"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Rockets Hire &quot;Controversial&quot; Ime Ukoka As New Head Coach<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Rockets announced on April 26 that they had signed Ukoka as their new head coach beating the Raptors to his signature\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rockets Hire &quot;Controversial&quot; Ime Ukoka As New Head Coach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Rockets announced on April 26 that they had signed Ukoka as their new head coach beating the Raptors to his signature\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-04-27T13:55:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/ime-ukoka-boston-celtics.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Landon Wheeler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Landon Wheeler\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Landon Wheeler\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7735831f7fb7440b065c8376a41cf88d\"},\"headline\":\"Rockets Hire &#8220;Controversial&#8221; Ime Ukoka As New Head Coach\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-04-27T13:55:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":426,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/04\\\/ime-ukoka-boston-celtics.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Sports\",\"USA\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\\\/\",\"name\":\"Rockets Hire \\\"Controversial\\\" Ime Ukoka As New Head Coach\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/04\\\/ime-ukoka-boston-celtics.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-04-27T13:55:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7735831f7fb7440b065c8376a41cf88d\"},\"description\":\"The Rockets announced on April 26 that they had signed Ukoka as their new head coach beating the Raptors to his signature\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/04\\\/ime-ukoka-boston-celtics.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/04\\\/ime-ukoka-boston-celtics.jpg\",\"width\":380,\"height\":250,\"caption\":\"Ime Ukoka, Boston Celtics\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7735831f7fb7440b065c8376a41cf88d\",\"name\":\"Landon Wheeler\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/46a3d81b7d342ca0efc5534703b4ff788fb760adae2a0a1be536a2b1a075d464?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/46a3d81b7d342ca0efc5534703b4ff788fb760adae2a0a1be536a2b1a075d464?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/46a3d81b7d342ca0efc5534703b4ff788fb760adae2a0a1be536a2b1a075d464?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Landon Wheeler\"},\"description\":\"All things casino related are what interests Landon, and having been involved in that industry for the last thirty years and having actually worked in several different roles in the casino industry he is definitely very well placed to keep you in the know in regards to what is happening in the casino industry as a whole.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/author\\\/landon-wheeler\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rockets Hire \"Controversial\" Ime Ukoka As New Head Coach","description":"The Rockets announced on April 26 that they had signed Ukoka as their new head coach beating the Raptors to his signature","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rockets Hire \"Controversial\" Ime Ukoka As New Head Coach","og_description":"The Rockets announced on April 26 that they had signed Ukoka as their new head coach beating the Raptors to his signature","og_url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\/","article_published_time":"2023-04-27T13:55:34+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/ime-ukoka-boston-celtics.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Landon Wheeler","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Landon Wheeler"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\/"},"author":{"name":"Landon Wheeler","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/7735831f7fb7440b065c8376a41cf88d"},"headline":"Rockets Hire &#8220;Controversial&#8221; Ime Ukoka As New Head Coach","datePublished":"2023-04-27T13:55:34+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\/"},"wordCount":426,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/ime-ukoka-boston-celtics.jpg","articleSection":["Sports","USA"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\/","url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\/","name":"Rockets Hire \"Controversial\" Ime Ukoka As New Head Coach","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/ime-ukoka-boston-celtics.jpg","datePublished":"2023-04-27T13:55:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/7735831f7fb7440b065c8376a41cf88d"},"description":"The Rockets announced on April 26 that they had signed Ukoka as their new head coach beating the Raptors to his signature","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/houston-rockets-hire-controversial-ime-ukoka-as-new-head-coach\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/ime-ukoka-boston-celtics.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/ime-ukoka-boston-celtics.jpg","width":380,"height":250,"caption":"Ime Ukoka, Boston Celtics"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/","name":"","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/7735831f7fb7440b065c8376a41cf88d","name":"Landon Wheeler","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/46a3d81b7d342ca0efc5534703b4ff788fb760adae2a0a1be536a2b1a075d464?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/46a3d81b7d342ca0efc5534703b4ff788fb760adae2a0a1be536a2b1a075d464?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/46a3d81b7d342ca0efc5534703b4ff788fb760adae2a0a1be536a2b1a075d464?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g","caption":"Landon Wheeler"},"description":"All things casino related are what interests Landon, and having been involved in that industry for the last thirty years and having actually worked in several different roles in the casino industry he is definitely very well placed to keep you in the know in regards to what is happening in the casino industry as a whole.","url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/author\/landon-wheeler\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}