As has long been suspected, Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo admitted to Yahoo! Sports that the trade of his good friend Kendrick Perkins in late February had a bigger impact on the team's mental focus than it should have.
"It wasn't like the man passed away or something," Rondo told Yahoo! Sports reporter Marc J. Spears. "I think we put too much emphasis on it. It's a business. He got traded. He's very happy where he's at. We still talk, and I'm always going to have his back. It shouldn't have affected us the way it affected us (WEEI)."
I sometimes worry about what goes on in Rondo's head. Throughout the season it seemed like he played up to the competition, but would play down to it as well if there wasn't something to prove. Then there was this whole Perkins trade mess, and it really did seem to affect him. To a point I understand it, but with this team aging by the day and Rondo is becoming the leader of the team he needs to have a stronger head then this. From this quote I think he has learned that. Like he said "it's a business", and no matter what happens you have to come in and do your job.
Rondo proved a lot to me in terms of toughness when he came back from that horrible elbow injury. I think over the next year he needs to become more and more of a leader. The obvious thing is developing the last parts of his game that keep him from being the best PG in the game (free throws, outside jump shot). He doesn't have to be good in those two areas, but he needs to at least make it respectable. If he can't hit free throws then it stops him from going to the rim, and if he can't hit the outside jump shot no one feels the need to play up on him.
The bottom line is if this quote is true it kind of makes me disappointed in the entire team. They are a veteran team and they should've been able to move on from this and not let it affect them as much as Rondo said it did.
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