ESPN’s Jay Williams is on the social media hot seat. On Wednesday, Williams tweeted about the news that the Celtics were closing in on hiring Ime Udoka as the team’s new head coach. In a since-deleted tweet, Williams applauded the hire and added that Udoka would be “the first head coach of color” for the Celtics.
“The first head coach of color for the @celtics … & even more importantly … he is one talented individual who has paid his dues,” Williams’ tweet read.
Unfortunately for Williams, that tweet isn’t true. The Celtics have had several black head coaches in the organization’s storied history. The Celtics were actually the first North American professional team to hire a black coach when they made Bill Russell player-coach in 1966. Russell and K.C. Jones are the only two black coaches in NBA history with multiple championships, and both did that as being the Celtics head coach.
In case Williams overlooked those two legends, Doc Rivers was also a head coach for the Celtics and lead them to a championship back in 2008.
Naturally, Twitter had a field day with this.
Jay Williams: Born yesterday? https://t.co/yDlltUcr6q
Jay Williams gets paid to talk about basketball. pic.twitter.com/2ZgSt23P0s
YIKES https://t.co/4vcUugCjYX
Williams later claimed on Twitter that he had been hacked.
As it relates to the Boston Celtics tweet that came from my account a couple of hours ago… I did not post that & my passcode has now been changed.
