Rondo, We Hardly Knew You—Still Don’t, and Never Will
DATELINE: HUMOR!
The rumors of Rajon Rondo’s demise as a Celtic demigod may be greatly exaggerated. Rondo has always been a Boston lightning rod for overblown speculation. Ainge already has kicked the scuttlebutt.
Doc Rivers never said that talking to Rondo was like talking to cement, as Dick Williams did for one of his players on the Red Sox.
If his teammates found Rondo impervious to their opinions on how to play the game, his GM Danny Ainge must have found the cement wall thicker than walls of Jericho.
And, those walls needed an angel blowing his trumpet to bring them down. Ainge is, of course, French for angel. He has his horn, and midnight may be closer than Rajon Rondo can imagine.
No one in Boston really knows Rajon Rondo; he was the man behind the curtain. He preferred that the media and teammates ignore the man pulling the levers. Rondo wanted to be left alone to his own devices.
Ainge fairly much left the loner alone when Rondo’s only true blue friend and closer than deodorant pal, Kendrick Perkins, was sent packing in February. Rondo became more mercurial and stand-offish.
Rondo took criticism and jokes with less than good humor.
When President Barack Obama made disparaging comments to Rondo at a fundraiser where Rondo paid for the privilege of facing insults from the President of the United States, the point guard nearly registered as a Republican.
Rondo could have been big in Boston, according to media types. To such poppycock, Rondo would likely respond, “I am big. It’s the media that got small.”
New Orleans is just down the river from Rondo’s home in Old Kentucky and nearer to Kendrick in Oklahoma. We hate to see him go, but console ourselves that Rajon will be happier in a better place. Alas, his bags are not packed.
He’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Chris Paul does not like Ainge or Boston, and Rondo is signed and sealed for the bumpy ride into the soon-to-be demise of the Big Three.
We won’t know Rondo any better in four years when he signs another long-term contract—with Boston--amid the swirl of trade rumors.
William Russo's newest book is out, ready for your tablet, your smartphone, your Kindle or Nook. Read RED SOX 2011: A WHIMSICAL AUTOPSY to find a month-by-month examination of the team, showing all the signs of trouble that most sports media missed. His other sports books are SEX, DRUGS, SPORTS & WHIMSY , and don't forget his humorous look at the Celtics legend in the making: RAJON RONDO: SUPERSTAR!
