So it seems that Rondo has flamed out in Chicago, putting his NBA future is serious doubt. Injuries, evolution of the game, and a unique personality have all caught up to him in unfortunate ways. Personally, I dont see another team picking him up, except for maybe Doc signing him to back up Chris Paul. But this post is not to mourn him, but rather celebrate the career of a very special (to me) and unique player.
From the moment he entered the league to the moment where he tore his ACL and transformed into Sour Rondo that we see today, he was my absolute favorite player in the league. Not only that, but the first player I genuinely appreciated above everyone else - not like my boyhood idolization of MJ and LeBron built from childlike fascination; and in the case of Michael Jordan, a shared first name. Rondo played differently than everyone, he made passes at angles that were unfathomable even in slow motion, and had a ball fake for every situation. Defensively he would glue himself to the opposing team's point guard and use his freakishy long arms to disrupt the game. At times he didn't seem human, but rather like an octopus that someone put a supercomputer inside of, and programmed it to selflessly make his team better at any cost. Watching him, you got the impression that he would chew his own arm off if it gave his team the advantage.
Off the court, many people, both close and far from Rondo, also said he didn't seem human, but in a negative way. They said he was too calculating, too cold, too standoffish, too stubborn. But they were wrong. Rondo cared deeper than anyone could have possibly understood. This was a man who constantly put his body on the line for his team. This was a man who earned the respect of Kevin Garnett by seeing the fire that burned inside KG and reflecting it back at him just as brightly. This was a man who played an entire playoff series with a dislocated elbow, an injury so painful that when he dove on the floor for a loose ball with a fucking dislocated elbow he decided that it would be less painful to break his fall with his goddam face. So when people said he made his teammates worse, it hurt him. And when he tried to push back against those comments, he was labeled "difficult".
Rajon Rondo never got a chance to truly shine. As a second year player, he had to figure out how to run an offense for 3 future hall of famers, and he wove himself into the fabric of the team. When he took on more of a burden as the Big 3 aged, he stepped up and made it a Big 4, only to be subjected to constant trade rumors. But he never gave up. When he was 27, at his athletic prime, he tore his ACL.
Picking my favorite Rondo moment is an impossible task. His highlights were unlike anyone else's - his were not dunks over 7 footers, or 30 ft buzzer beaters, but rather moments that were only possible because of him. Maybe its that time against Orlando in the playoffs where he sprinted down the entire court and dove between a player's legs to steal the ball for a layup. Maybe its him playing an entire series, at an effective level, with a dislocated elbow, not missing a single game. Or maybe it was the time he got LeBron in the air, only to do a behind the back pass to Tony Allen for what felt like a series clinching dunk. Or maybe it was the time he put up 44 points against Miami, doing whatever he could to put more life into the aging Big 3. Or maybe it was every time he faked a behind the back pass in a way only he could, or how every time he kicked out to Ray Allen you got that special feeling of simply watching great basketball. You knew that shot was going in every time. And every time he did that not only did you feel the joy of watching him do it that time, but the joy of every other time he had done that previously.
No discussion of Rondo would be complete without the added legend of National Tv Rondo and Playoff Rondo. In most regular season games, Rondo could be counted on to play good defense and get close to triple double numbers on a nightly basis. But when the stage got bigger, so did his game. He would transform from a 6'1" pass first point guard to a shape shifting entity capable of thoroughly outplaying anyone across from him. Kobe, LeBron, D Wade all fell victim to this phenomena. When the cameras were on, anything was possible, and he even would put up numbers that we havent seen replicated since, not even by Harden or Westbrook. And Playoff Rondo was the same, except he didnt care if he lived or died after the game. He just wanted to win.
So here is to Rajon Rondo, who will undoubtedly go down as one of my all time favorites. I hope that everyone else chooses to remember him the way I do. Even in his final Celtic moments, he got Jae Crowder into Boston, assuring that Boston would always have a muscular guy screaming his head off on defense. Just as there could only be one Picasso, one Larry Bird, there will only ever be one Rondo. Once a Celtic, always a Celtic.
If anyone wants to post highlights or other great memories of Rondo, please feel free to do so. I'll get it started
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvcbMNJQVbI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTEVdhgno14 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cHe_kA4Q4A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndyfsS0bFK8
Submitted January 04, 2017 at 08:20PM by Lord_DickNipples