Celtics Title Town

Yesterday was the biggest win of the season for the Celtics as a team, and for Rajon Rondo. Let's not be afraid to savor the moment a little. We just defeated the best team in the league. They may have been without Derrick Rose, their best player, but they were still a strong team, and we were without both our starting center and our backup 'center', against the best rebounding team in the league. Yesterday was a magical achievement for a team that has struggled so much, even bigger (in my opinion) than our big week against the Orlando Magic.

It's been interesting to see how fan reaction and media reaction has settled out. Magic Johnson led the way amongst Rondo admirers, after the game yesterday. In a clip I saw at ESPN, he called Rondo's game 'dominant'. 'Celts' has commented here that he also saw Magic declare that Rondo has now proven himself to be the Celtics leader, and that it is time for the Big Three to adapt themselves to this, as supporting players (essentially reversing roles with Rondo, who has supported them for the past four years). I haven't seen this clip, but it sounds right on to me, and it sounds like something Magic would say.  Anyone who loves  Rajon Rondo's game (as I think Magic does)  must have felt a little bit dizzy with feelings of vindication over the past 24 hours. I know I did!

On the other side, Rondo's many critics were left  grasping at straws after yesterday's game. Many opined, accurately enough, that this was 'just one game' - as if Rondo hasn't had several other dominant performances this season alone, and as if Rondo were the only one who has put up stinkers along the way!   Others suggested that yesterday's Rondo explosion was mostly the result of the Celtics' unexpected indulgence in fast break basketball, implying that Rondo remains a problem, not a solution, in the halfcourt game, which is generally assumed to be more important  (one might point out that Rondo's aggressive play also makes a difference in the half-court game, not only providing scoring opportunities for Rondo, but breaking down the defense and setting up pass plays, but oh well...).

 Poor Rondo. Even Slam, which usually pushes Rondo pretty hard, featured Kobe in their Post Up daily recap section today. One would almost think that a monster Triple Double could get you some props, but you have to be an anointed one, it seems...

 But, strangely enough, the consensus criticism of Rondo from the haters has turned out to be ... that he didn't smile enough yesterday!!! He was too stoic and lockjawed during the game, it seems (usually these guys rip Rondo for being unfocused, but any criticism will do, right?!), and worse, he wasn't nice to reporters after the game.

Rondo was not so great to watch after the game. Cloaked in a towel, he came to his locker several times while a large group of reporters waited to ask him his thoughts. He said nothing, then disappeared into the trainer’s room. Then he came out to get something to drink. Then he disappeared again. This went on for more than an hour until longtime Celtics publicist Jeff Twiss announced that Rondo did not feel like talking.

 You know the drill on this one, people. When an athlete doesn’t talk to us, he’s not talking to you. If you don’t care, we don’t care.

 So on this day, Rondo had no great thoughts. He was content to let his game do his talking. Perhaps he’ll post his political manifesto on Facebook.

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/articles/2012/02/13/rondo_goes_from_point_guard_to_point_made_guard/

Well, one has to give kudos to Dan Shaughnessy for his literacy-tinged sneering and his pretentions to principle, doesn't one? The suggestion is that Dan just wanted to ask Rondo the 'hard questions', like journalists are supposed to do, searching out the truth wherever it may lurk, even under a reticent towel. I don't particularly read Shaugnessy's work, but I'm pretty sure he hasn't generally searched relentlessly for truth behind Danny Ainge's picturesque pronouncements and prevarications, ya know? His real grudge against Rondo seems to be that Rondo doesn't acknowledge and bow to the unspoken pecking order, the one where Danny kneels to the owners, 'journalists' kneel to Danny, and players kneel to the 'journalists'. After all, Rondo, who controls your image? Get with the program young man!

 Most Rondo fans and attackers really worry about the same basic thing: we've seen so mamy peaks and valleys from Rondo before. Every player has them, of course, but they seem so much more extreme in Rondo's case and - Rondo's attackers would never admit they are thinking this, of course, but they are - we simply can't afford so much inconsistency from our best player and leader. It wasn't that we lost a close game to LA that mystified and frustrated fans so much. It was the way Rondo gave us a nice lead early in the 3rd quarter, and then pretty much seemed to disappear the rest of the game. It was the way Rondo, presumably unsettled by yet more trade rumors and possibly by friction in the lockerroom after the Laker game,  completely disappeared for nearly the ENTIRE Toronto game, which gave us to another miserable loss, reminiscent of the New Orleans defeat in the third game of the season, another game where Rondo inexplicably seemed to disappear, possibly because of frustration and team friction. Game after game, even the most dedicated Rondo fans find themselves wondering, which Rondo will show up tonight? Will it be the Bad Rondo, who looks like a matador on the defensive end, and seems passive aggressive on the offensive end? Or will it be the Good Rondo, who seems to control both ends of the court like a circus ringmaster?

 Always there is a new 'social fact' that rises up when situations change. A 'social fact' is a claim that is repeated so much that it becomes accepted as fact, however uncertain, or even spurious, it may be. For a long time, one of the 'social facts' about Rondo has been that playing with the Big Three made him look like a far better player than he really was. Few seemed to consider that playing with the Big Three may have been a double edged sword for Rondo in some ways. Last night's game seems to have opened some minds about this,  convincing some observers that Rondo is primarily a transition-oriented point guard, who needs to play with a team of greyhounds to fully develop his abilities. I wonder if this idea is on its way to becoming the new 'social fact'? I hope not. When Rondo plays aggressively, he can be as devastating in the half-court game as he is in transition. I'm hopeful that Doc sees this, since he has emphasized heavily since last night that the TEAM (not just Rondo) needs to stop walking the ball up on offense. God knows, many of us fans have been screaming about this for a looong time. But it seems to me that the next step is to make sure that Rondo has a green light to improvise when he is running the half-court offense.

 I've contended for a while that Rondo is a scorer. This has gone against the prevailing understanding that Rondo is a pass-first guard who can only score opportunistically. I agree that Rondo is a pass-first guard, but to me, the ultimate mark of a true scorer is the ability to hit crazy made-up shots on the run as if you meant them. These are the shots that really frustrate other teams; you work so hard on defense to force the other team's best player into some ridiculous prayer, and he goes and hits it like you were working for him.  Nothing more frustrating...

As I see it, this is an art that comes from a player having a special feeling for the basket. It's almost like the player and the hoop speak to each other. Pierce has that. So does Rondo. This is a part of the 'uncanny' quality that I think truly great players have. It's Kobe Bryant hitting a fallaway J with a guy draped all over him to win a game. It's Kevin Love somehow ALWAYS knowing where the rebound is going to be, as if it sought him out. It's Paul Pierce releasing his shot in traffic like a rubberized praying mantis. It's Rajon Rondo hitting an over-the-back-board-from-behind shot, falling out of bounds, with a Big flying at him like a giant Bat. It's Rondo almost beating Kevin Durant in H-O-R-S-E. I'm not saying that Rondo should take every shot he takes flying out of bounds behind the basket over a closing Big. I"m saying that, like Pierce, more than Pierce, he needs the freedom to unleash the 'uncanny' in his game, because that's the part that makes his game, and the team's game, unpredictable and undefendable.  He needs the freedom to play aggressively, even to improvise, even to do things that might seem crazy coming from another player.

So often in the past, after a big game, we see a lot of talk from the team, in the media, and in the fandom, that - however great Rondo was - the key for the next game is to get him back under control. That is exactly what we DON'T need right now.

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Rich Levine has an excellent article about Rondo today.  I don't agree with everything in it, but Levine makes an effort to understand the creative aspect of Rondo, something one rarely sees in sports 'journalism' unfortunately.  Bravo!! 

"But what if the blessing of a talent is also the curse of having to lug it around like a workhorse, impressing everyone, and that very expectation is part of what makes talented people want to ignore the world and dive headlong into their own issues to begin with?"

Could it be that that's what is going on here? After all, he's still only 25. He's only in the past year really begun to be burdened with the responsibility of carrying this team. Maybe he's not ready? Maybe he still needs to grow up a little, and become comfortable with his role as the supposed future-face of this franchise — the guy who needs to show up every game, the guy who should talk and stand up for not only himself, but his team, after every game — win or lose.

But at the same time, could you blame him for holding back on a franchise that was so aggressively attempting to ship him out of town. Even if the Celtics were justified in attempting to acquire Chris Paul, and even if it's always "just a business," how can you expect Rondo to give every ounce of emotion to a team, knowing how easily and quickly they'd be willing to ship him off to a no-win situation in New Orleans?

Likewise, how can we expect him to officially grow up and take over the reigns while the Big Three is still around? I mean, obviously Rondo's come a long way these past few years, but at the end of the day, this is still the Big 3's team — maybe not physically, but emotionally. And it's hard for Rondo to really jump into that leadership role, when he knows he'll still have to answer to Pierce, Allen, and more than anyone, KG. 

...

A few more performances like yesterday would certainly help the cause, but in the end it's not even about that. It's about consistency. It's about being confident that your best player and starting point guard is ready to act as both on each and every night.

We can't expect a stat line like yesterday's every game, but expecting that kind of effort is more than reasonable.

 http://www.csnne.com/blog/standing-room-only/post/Making-sense-of-Rondo?blockID=650296&feedID=9961&awid=5431769084783925828-932