Rondo was playing like the player that finished 8th in MVP voting just five years ago before his injury.
The Celtics caught a series altering break with the news of Rajon Rondo’s right thumb fracture in the wake of a devastating loss in Game 2. The Bulls looked like a drastically different team on offense, looking lost and out of sync at times during Game 3, opening the door for the Celtics to come back in this series.
In regard to his excellent play, we should have known better. After having the privilege for many years of watching Rondo pick apart opposing defenses when it seemed to matter the most, we should have foreseen Rondo flipping the script and burning the Celtics in a crucial moment. We simply had seen this narrative play out too many times before.
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This time it just seemed so improbable following his unceremonious departure from the Celtics, and subsequent disastrous stays in Dallas and Sacramento. Even this year appeared to be a train wreck in Chicago, and potentially the end of the line. The Bulls seemingly hit a boiling point in January, when Rondo called out Dwyane Wade and Jimmy Butler in a post on Instagram for their lack of leadership.
Rondo has never been afraid to speak his mind, occasionally to the detriment of his team. He has often been criticized for his woeful shooting, penchant for looking for an assist in an effort to pad his stats, and his perceived lack of consistent effort during the regular season. While all of these criticisms have held merit at one point or another during his career, we have never seen a player quite like Rondo.
At 6’1”, boasting a unicorn-like 6’9” wingspan, Rondo used his absurd length to become amongst the league leaders in steals, rebounds for a point guard, and assists. At his best, he was a basketball savant, a triple double machine, who helped prolong the title window and effectiveness of the aging Big Three.
Rondo had an unrivaled basketball IQ, and the ability to take over games while scoring a paltry ten points a night. While he left more to be desired on many occasions, he always seemed to put on a show during a key primetime or playoff matchup, thriving when going up against the league’s top teams.
Although the trade that sent Rondo to the Mavericks for Jae Crowder turned out to be a great deal, I still kept an eye on him. It pained me to see him basically get sent home from the Mavericks during the 2015 playoffs and subsequently watch him play last season for the Kings, the NBA’s version of purgatory. When he signed with Chicago in the off-season, I thought it was a terrible fit and could mark the end of his once promising career.
Despite a turbulent regular season, it was Rondo who had made all the difference in the first two games of this first round match-up with Boston. He found a way to once again excel in primetime, pushing the pace, elevating the play of his teammates, and wreaking havoc in his own unique way.
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While I was angered at the inability of the Celtics to stop him, particularly in Game 2, a part of me gushed at the sight of Rondo once again turning in a vintage, maestro performance on the hallowed parquet floor.