According to an exclusive with The DailyMail the Boston Celtics employee whose, affair with head coach Ime Udoka led to his suspension can finally be revealed.
The female employee is team service manager Kathleen Nimmo Lynch, 34, a married mother-of-three, DailyMail.com can disclose.
The Celtics have not identified the woman Udoka was involved with, but Lynch’s name had been leaked online.
She served as a team liaison arranging travel, lodging and game tickets for Celtics family members at home and on the road, and is likely to have arranged travel for Udoka’s fiancée, actress Nia Long.
A source familiar with the investigation told DailyMail.com that the affair was consensual, short lived, and had ended by the time investigators got involved.
Lynch has longstanding personal ties with the team’s legendary former player Danny Ainge, who was the team’s executive director of basketball operations before leaving the franchise last year.
Ainge, 63, a fellow devout Mormon, helped her land her job.
A source familiar with the investigation told DailyMail.com that Ainge learned early in the summer that the Celtics had initiated an investigation into Udoka’s relationship with Lynch, but he did not intervene in the investigation or decision to suspend the coach.
The source added, however, that Ainge was deeply disappointed by the affair, especially given the fact they have families.
Lynch has known Ainge and his family for well over a decade, sharing a hometown, college and workplace with the basketball hero.
Ainge left the Celtics last year and has taken over as head of basketball operations for the Utah Jazz, long before news of the affair went public and resulted in last month’s season-long suspension.
‘The relationship to the Ainge family or where she went to school or her religious affiliation had nothing to do with the severity of the punishment,’ the source said.
‘The good thing is that everyone regrets what happened and is taking responsibility, and humbled, and trying to fight for their families and lives back,’ the source said.
Lynch and Ainge both declined comment when contacted by DailyMail.com.
Lynch, who grew up in an active Mormon family, lived for years as a teenager in Wellesley, Massachusetts, Ainge’s then-hometown where he and his wife were raising a family-of-six.
She later attended college with Danny Ainge’s daughter at the basketball star’s alma mater Brigham Young University, a school in Provo, Utah sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
She graduated in 2011 and two years later was hired by the Celtics, working under Ainge who was the chief of basketball operations.
He’d held the top job since 2003 and retired in 2021 but has maintained ties to the Celtics, where his son Austin is the director of player personnel.
Udoka, the Celtics’ second-year head coach with a once sterling reputation, was suspended for the remainder of the 2022-23 season over multiple unspecified violations of team rules. No disciplinary action was taken against Lynch.
The power dynamic associated with the improper relationship was reportedly the primary finding.
‘I know the whole story front and back,’ the source said. ‘It’s as basic as can get. All the acts were 100 percent consensual.’
Still, the source added, the Celtics decided the suspension was prudent, largely because ‘they didn’t want the distraction going on for long.’
Sources close to Lynch say she’s been left devastated and afraid to show her face in public these days, wanting to avoid scrutiny given her name and photo have circulated widely.
‘She can’t even go to a grocery store,’ one person said.
Ainge’s daughter, Taylor, a close friend of Lynch, wouldn’t discuss specifics when contacted by DailyMail.com, but urged the media to respect the privacy of the parties involved.
‘These are human beings involved that have families and are dealing with a lot of consequences themselves, and they don’t need people and Twitter and the news media making it worse,’ she said. ‘There’s a reason that people aren’t discussing this. It’s been investigated and it’s over. The Celtics are doing what they have to do.
‘Ultimately when you run a corporation and you have rules, your hands are tied,’ she continued. ‘It is what it is. I know everyone wants a saucy story, but it’s really just a series of unfortunate events.’
In the aftermath of his suspension, Udoka expressed remorse.
‘I want to apologize to our players, fans, the entire Celtics organization, and my family for letting them down,’ Udoka’s statement read. ‘I am sorry for putting the team in this difficult situation, and I accept the team’s decision. Out of respect for everyone involved, I will have no further comment.’
