After cruising to a 114-92 win over the Suns, you’d expect Rockets fans to cheer and the opponents to grumble a bit, pretty standard stuff. But as HC Ime Udoka made his way to the locker room, a Suns fan couldn’t resist taking a personal jab, one that had absolutely nothing to do with the game itself. The encounter was brief, almost comically so, but it hit Udoka right where it stung. That one-offhand comment seemed to unearth old memories, stirring up a mix of frustration and nostalgia.

“LeBron still owns you!” the fan barked, catching Udoka mid-walk. The Rockets coach couldn’t just let that slide; he stepped up, confronting the Suns supporter head-on, cameras capturing every tense moment.

But instead of backing down, the fan leaned in, sharpening his jab with a sly grin. “What happened in Boston?” he pressed, revisiting Udoka’s dramatic Celtics exit, clearly aiming to get under the coach’s skin with every word.

So how did a LeBron James jab sneak into a Suns-Rockets showdown? It all harks back to December 2, 2023, during a Lakers-Rockets clash. Late in the fourth quarter at Crypto.com Arena with 8:35 on the clock, Houston’s Tari Eason put his head down and charged to the rim.

He drew a foul on Cam Reddish, nothing unusual, until Reddish brushed into him right after the whistle. 

Then came the spark. As Eason walked to the line, James called out what he thought was a travel. That didn’t sit well with Rockets coach Ime Udoka, who fired back from the sideline. According to mics and a few very dedicated lip-readers online, Udoka snapped, “Y’all got to stop crying like b—-, man.” LeBron shot right back, telling him, “Don’t use it so loosely. Don’t use that word so loosely…We are all grown men,” objecting to Udoka’s choice of words. 

Just like that, the verbal back-and-forth went from spicy to volcanic. The officials stepped in, handed out double techs, and because Udoka had already picked up one earlier in the second quarter, his night was over. Ejected. Walk of shame.

The Lakers rode the chaos to a 107–97 win, while Houston, then 8–9 and still winless on the road, headed back to Texas. And if you’re wondering what LeBron said after all the fireworks, he wasn’t giving away anything juicy. With a half-smile, he told reporters they were just talking about “Thanksgiving… how much we enjoyed Thanksgiving.”

Udoka? He wasn’t in the mood to rehash the argument either. All he offered was, “We had some conversation and [the refs] didn’t like what they heard.”

Then he pivoted straight into calling out his own squad, saying getting pushed around by a Lakers team “that’s not known for physicality or punking people is not a good sign.”

At this point, it’s pretty clear what that Suns fan was trying to do. While Ime Udoka and the Rockets were feeling themselves and celebrating, somebody in the crowd couldn’t resist digging into the archives.

But when that jab didn’t land, the fan went straight for the Celtics-exit jab instead.

Ime Udoka’s Former Celtics Situation Resurfaces

Ime Udoka’s baggage started back in September 2022, when the Boston Celtics stunned the league with a suspension. Just months after coaching the team to the NBA Finals, Boston hit pause on his career, announcing he was being sidelined for the entire 2022–23 season for what they called “violations of team policies.”

The mystery around it made the story even bigger, and behind the scenes, an outside law firm had launched a months-long investigation into an “intimate consensual relationship” with a female staffer.

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When Udoka was introduced as the Rockets’ new head coach, he didn’t duck the past; he walked straight into it. “I owned up to it,” he said. “I took responsibility for my part.” But the fallout wasn’t something he could leave behind in Boston.

Team owner Wyc Grousbeck made it clear the Celtics believed the situation was serious, saying, “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.”

He added that while the investigation found “multiple violations,” it didn’t point to a wider cultural crisis, just a situation so severe that “something substantial needed to be done.”

The suspension came just days before training camp, forcing Boston to hand the reins to Joe Mazzulla, who was named interim coach through June 30, 2023.

Even as the Celtics moved forward, Udoka’s exit kept trailing him like an uninvited shadow.

Brad Stevens admitted the fallout had been rough on the women in the organization. Udoka later acknowledged the pain he caused with a public apology: “I am sorry for putting the team in this difficult situation, and I accept the team’s decision.” 

Even after all the apologies and accountability, that Suns fan didn’t hesitate for a second to fling it right back in Udoka’s face.