Finally, we have a New England athlete on the list. For a site that dedicates much of its energies to covering NE based sports teams it seemed to take a while before we got to a Beantown athlete. Nonetheless, we are here and at #6 we have the most enigmatic player to don Celtics green since maybe The Chief, Robert Parrish.
For all of his on-court talents, Rajon Rondo is a bit of a mystery to the general public. We don't know much about him, and he seems very happy to keep it that way. Even in photo shoots Rondo is often captured just staring blankly at the camera. Rarely sporting the toothy grin of his coach and teammates, Rondo is content to remain a stone-cold assassin on the floor. And that is just fine with Celtics fans.
Hey, Rajon! Smile - you're on camera!
What we do know about, Rajon is that he is a supreme distributor of the basketball. The current NBA leader in assists per game (12.2), Rondo posts absurd assist numbers on a nightly basis. Some of that, no doubt is due to the depth of talent that surrounds him on the Celtics, but make no mistake he gets them the ball in position to put it in the basket easily - a skill that is becoming a bit of a lost art among "modern" point guards who look to score first more often than they look to pass.
His ability to distribute the ball to his scorers is something that he developed as a High School point guard at Oak Hill Academy, one of the premier basketball breeding grounds in America. Knowing that he wasn't a go-to scorer on the squad, Rondo instead focused his efforts on defense and passing the basketball. It served him well, and GM Danny Ainge has said that when scouting him as a High School player those were the skills along with his athleticism and leadership qualities, that impressed him the most and probably led to the Celtics acquiring him via trade during the 2006 draft.
Following his days at Oak Hill Rondo accepted a scholarship offer to play for University of Kentucky (thus spawning DP's love affair with him) which was seen by some as a slap in the face to his hometown Louisville, and Rick Pitino who had shown a lot of interest in another high profile point guard that year - Sebastian Telfair (good one. haha). Rondo would play two years at Kentucky and put up very solid numbers there, including outstanding defensive numbers as he became known for having the quickest hands in college basketball and posted a steal in every game he played as a freshman. He was not however, known as a shooter (still true) and led some to question his real potential in the NBA. Still, he was selected 21st overall by the Phoenix Suns and traded to the Celtics for the Cavs 1st rd pick and cash. That pick later became Rudy Fernandez who the Suns would also trade - to Portland. (Phoenix really made a lot of screwy moves in that 2-3 yr stretch where they thought they were contenders).
Just think Steve, he could have been your teammate instead!
Rondo would interestingly enough split time as a rookie with the Celts with Sebastian Telfair, as well as Delonte West. While his minutes were considerably limited, he still posted top 10 steals numbers and was more than promising as a point guard. The Celtics finished the year with a horrid 24 wins which started the Greg Oden at #1 rumors and had many fans looking forward to an Oden/Rondo big man/point guard combo. MY HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED! The Celtics did not win the #1 pick in the lottery and continued to make a series of trades uniting the Big 3 and leading to a championship.
Playing a critical role in the Celtics' title run of 2007-08, Rondo went from being perhaps the guy who would hold the team back, to being just the point guard the team needed. His true breakout, however, came during the 2008-09 playoffs when the team made it to the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. If we're rounding up, he averaged a triple- double throughout those playoffs. In actuality it was 9.8 assists and 9.7 rebounds to go with 16.9 points per contest. In the first round against Chicago (still one of the great playoff series of all time) Rondo showed a lot of fiery passion, regularly going at it with John Salmons, Ben Gordon, Derrick Rose and even mild mannered Kirk Heinrich. The Celts won the series in 7 games, and Rondo cemented his place among the top point guards in the league.
This season he came out particularly on fire with the assist numbers, setting an NBA record with 67 assists through the first four games. However, after the hot start he has battled through some nagging injuries. It would be very beneficial for the Celtics to find a reliable point guard behind him to help spell his minutes, the way they did with Jeff Green to spell Pierce. I'm sure they're hoping Delonte West can do that, but he hasn't proved very helpful.
Rajon Rondo's NBA career has certainly been productive thus far, having been in the playoffs 3 times in 4 years, and heading toward a 4th appearance. I'd love to see him continue to become more assertive on the offensive end. While he will never be a shooter, and distributing will always be his calling card, I think he needs to keep defenses a little more honest in the 4th quarter. But that's nitpicking. He has a ring already, and Celtics fans are surely hoping he can add one or two more before his days in Boston are over. While the rest of the team may be aging quickly, Rondo is in his prime, having just a week or so ago turned 25. With that in mind, and the fact that he is locked up under contract for a while the Celtics' future looks very bright as long as he remains a part of it.
*Editor's Note: Rajon Rondo remains eligible for this list, because he turned 25 after I compiled my list of players. Sorry for any confusion.*
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