Vogel comparing Rondo to him, even tangentially, is a pretty telling sign for how often we can expect to see him in the rotation. And honestly, the approach makes sense. The perpetually opinionated Rondo will have no problem filling that void in the locker room, as well as serving as a star playmaking contemporary that has the respect of James, a void the team also had to fill with the departure of Jason Kidd.
Plus, the Clippers last year saw the perils of using their pull of the Playoff Rondo lever too early. You can follow Harrison on Twitter at hmfaigen. Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from.
By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. It's every game, even road games. The quirks don't stop there, either.
Check out this clip of Rondo's mesmerizing routines after the opening tip. Rondo possesses unlimited, freakish athletic talent. He's got a terrific handle, long arms, huge hands and a uniquely creative style. Yet he's not a guy who forces the issue; instead, he prefers to set up teammates. This is, perhaps, the strangest incongruity of all. Rondo, a person with a well-documented history of interpersonal discord, simply wants to create scoring chances for others.
Maybe that's just another symptom of his analytical mind. Perhaps he recognizes the actual value of facilitating and opts for that strategy because it makes the most sense—not because he cares about endearing himself to teammates. For what it's worth, Rondo's grasp of basketball nuance is the stuff of legend. Per Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, he's always had a staggering capacity to memorize sets and tendencies:.
Rondo was a young guard during the Celtics' championship chase in when a teammate remembered one of the coaches giving him a Hawks playbook to study overnight.
They were in the opening-round series, and the coaching staff outlined the top 15 or so plays Atlanta would likely run on Rondo.
The next day, the coach quizzed Rondo on the plays. He asked about three or four, and Rondo ran through the details for him. Which was exactly what the coach wanted to hear. What if Rondo simply views everything in his life as some kind of strategic exercise—like Connect Four or spades—meant to be analytically dissected?
I'm sure New York Knicks fans were itching to buy a pile of Rondo jerseys and burn them after he posted an point, assist, rebound stat line on them back on March 4th of this year, and I'm just as sure that Miami Heat fans wanted to do the very same thing during Rondo's point outburst in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Rondo is a guy who seems like he breaks and sets records every time he steps on to the court, so it's no wonder why he rubs the rest of the league outside of Boston the wrong way. It's things like throwing Kirk Hinrich into the scorer's table. It's things like going after cameramen and wearing clothing like he did in that video. It's things like calling a team a bunch of crybabies.
It's things like claiming that he is the best point guard in the NBA. Basically, Rondo thinks he is better than anybody and everybody who makes their way on to the floor, and it's that raw confidence and, as I mentioned earlier, arrogance that is the driving force behind his ridiculously high level of play.
What people also have to realize is that Rondo plays for one of the most despised franchises in basketball and probably in sports in general in the Celtics. When he was a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves, just about everybody loved him. They admired his passion and his desire, and they saw him as a lovable underdog. Now that he's wearing green, he is hated, hated perhaps more than anyone not named LeBron James or Kobe Bryant.
Garnett represents everything a Celtic should represent, and so does Rondo. He plays the game with emotion.
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