Wake Up With An NBA Countdown: Rajon Rondo
Good morning everybody, happy Tuesday! You know I’ve tried my best to have this blog include as many non Celtics as a I could for obvious reasons, but I’m man enough to admit I fell down a big time former Celtics rabbit hole last night and after I woke up at 3:37am on my couch with my contacts in and all the lights on, I decided that this morning’s blog was going to be about one of my all time favorite Celtics, and true enigma, Rajon Rondo.
You see long before the Isaiah trade was Trader Danny taking advantage of the Pheonix Suns. When Rondo cam aboard in 2006 and played in 78 games (25 starts) he was fairly underwhelming and the Celtics were horrendous. I’m talking 24-58 horrendous. While he showed flashes, we as fans had no idea what was in store and what Rondo was capable of as a player. But then as we know the Big 3 happened and everything changed. He finally had legit talent around him and immediately everything changed. He went from 6/3/3 on 41/20% his rookie year to 10.6/4.2/5.1 on 49/26% in Year 2 (when they wont the title). From that year on Rondo became one of the best pure passing point guards in the entire league, a league leader in steals, and I can honestly say is probably the best pure passing Celtics point guard I have seen in my lifetime. Sure people say he hunted for assists and they it like it’s a bad thing to set up your teammates. That’s how you knew the Rondo hate was getting a little ridiculous, where the talking heads were acting like it was a bad thing he tried to get a shit ton of assists. That never really made any sense to me.
A few more interesting tidbits about the 4x All Star, All NBA Third Team, 2x All NBA Defense First Team, 2x All NBA Defense Second Team, 3x NBA Assist Leader, and 1x NBA Steals leader. Now Rajon Rondo has been in the NBA for 12 seasons , but did you know after spending the first 9 years of his career in BOS he’s never spent more than 1 season with any other team? This is a player who’s on his 6th team. I find that pretty interesting considering it isn’t a case of Rondo being washed up. He’s still doing the same shit now he did in his low and mid 20s. All time he’s 23rd in assists and 61st in steals, but he does have the 5th best assist per game numbers (8.5) and the 5th best assist percentage. Not too shabby for a guy that didn’t really have a jumpshot for a long stretch of his career.
As most Celtics fans will tell you, another reason why Rondo was so awesome was that he was at his absolute best when the lights were brightest. Playoff Rondo was a legit thing, and for some reason he was able to flip a switch and do something outrageous like a 18/17/20 performance out of no where. If not for the clear David Stern job against the Heat when Wade 100% hit him on the head and nothing was called
(yeah, I’m still bitter, this is my blog so deal with it)
the Celtics probably win another title but whatever. What I also loved about Rondo was his toughness, this dude was a certified animal. Dislocate his elbow (sup Wade), it’s no thing Rondo will just play with one arm and dominate. Hell he tore his ACL against ATL and played 12 minutes on it in a real NBA game. How many players do that?
But at the end of the day, when I think Rajon Rondo I think of his passing. Back in his prime it was like him and Steve Nash as the best passers in the league, and that’s a pretty impressive person to be in the same breath as. Sure things didn’t work out post Big 3, and Ainge showed how ruthless he can be and traded his ass (that first game w/ DAL when he came back at hit 5 threes still haunts me), but that doesn’t take away from the fact that he was the starting point guard on the only title team I’ve ever seen while alive, and one of the most creative and lethal passers to ever rock a Celtics jersey. Honestly there hasn’t been a passer on this team since, and I’m not sure there ever will be.
So hopefully you enjoy today’s video, as always if there’s someone you’d like to see just list them in the comments below. Otherwise, have yourself a great Tuesday!