for your viewing pleasure (or displeasure) this is the rant.

I can imagine there are reasons to like rondo, especially if you are not a bulls fan, but even before us bulls fans collectively hated rondo, i sorta hated that smug faced dude. We bulls fans hate him because through that 7 game boston chicago series, he had plenty of incidents when he cheap shot, undercut, and made dirty plays all around with a once respected kg applauding and berating his every action from the sideline.

However as a fan of the nba and basketball in general, ive disliked rondo and his "unselfishness" the moment the media started to make a big deal of it, before i knew he was a cheap shot artist.

Part of it has to be blamed on the media, the big 3 formed and the media being how they were wanted to justify that the big 3 werent alone, that it wasnt really just 3 players in the nba who can win championships. Now….this is actually a true fact, however, the media also seems to hate the truth. And thus, rondo love was born.

KG was always a big aquisition for the celtics, and ray allen was just as much a steal. However, this celtic team also had now bulls head coach and renouned defensive miracle man in Tom Thibadeau.. It was these 3 people plus Paul Pierce which allowed rondos severe limitations to be hidden, while focusing on his strengths.

Offensively its pretty obvious. You have a guy like ray allen who can never be left alone when he wants to shoot, you have paul pierce who is one of the best all around scorers in the nba, and you have kevin garnett, a hungry ‘havent won yet’ kg, who carried teams offensively and defensively for a decade. Rondo couldnt score, and he never would have to because of those three.

Defensively though is where part of my irritation of rondo started. Rondo was never a fundemental defender. As an athlete rondo was actually pretty damn good. He has a terrific wingspan and huge hands and is actually pretty explosive and quick despite being like 6’2. It was due to this athleticism, i can imagine, that the play at ky you were refering to could work. It wasnt because rondo was very skilled, but it was because he was always more athletic than most college players.

It was here where his defense spawned from. Not to take away complete credit from rondos mind, he was never a bad defender either. But being in a Thibs defensive system and having kg at that anchor position allowed rondo an advantage most dont get. Thibs system, relies heavily on a good defensive big man. The idea is to funnel the ball handler into the big man and force the offensive player to take a 20 foot jumper as his best shot, the 20 foot jumper is of course THE MOST INEFFICIENT SHOT in nba basketball, mainly because it has the difficulty of a 3 point shot, however it is still worth only 2. The defense allows the pg to really just act as the starting funnel point for the ball handler. It was because of this lighter defensive load, that rondo was allowed to use his athleticism to gamble and pounce on plays. The system allowed the help defense to cover rondo long enough for him to get back into position. And it was this, the ability to gamble and get steals, that led to rondos acclaim to fame as a great defensive player, before rondo actually became a good defensive player…..

I am a man who loves defense, my favorite bull in recent history, and probably in the entire nba is Kirk Hinrich, mainly because i found him to be a player who took my skill set (not the same as my skill ability, i am no where near a college basketball level much less nba) and excelled with it. One of the things i learned from hinrich was how to play defense, and the way he did it was more of the fundemental sound way of doing it. Another great defender would be a guy like shane battier, these guys dont get tons of steals or blocks, but they play defense effectively and skillfully. Rondo was never a defender like them, he was a gambler who stuffed that steal stat enough and the media just translated steals to great defender.

But the next irritation with rondo comes from his ability as an offensive player, once again i suppose the media should get some blame, but still……

Rondo woudl get steals, he would go at the rim, and then he would…..not lay it up. He still does this and the media boasts "look at rondo, how unselfish" when it should be saying "RONDO LAY THE DAMN BALL UP". See theres a strange fine line in assists. When you make a pass that allows your team mate to get an easier shot than you currently have, for example you are wide open 15 feet from the rim, but your team mate is wide open under neath the rim, passing up the 15 foot jumper for the lay in is a good assist. However…..if you have a wide open layup, but you decide you are going to pass it up because you want to get an assist, and you literally wait on a team mate who completely expected you to just finish the play to jog back and finish the layup for you….you are a ridiculous stat stuffer extrodinaire! (hat tip to nba 2k11 and clark kellogs dumb lines)

And because thiis is getting kinda long (and can get longer) my final reason (for now) for hating rondo, is because of Jason Kidd. Everything the media makes rondo out to be, every time someone says that rondo is a top 5 pg or something along those lines, i want to take a picture out of jason kidd. Because kidd is what the media and rondo fans mistake rondo to be, except kidd was genuine. Jason kidd was a tripple double machine, jason kidd was a player with a terrible jumper, jason kidd was an extrodinary passer. And jason kidd in his prime was everything rondo tries his hardest to be percieved as being, without actually being.

Jason kidd could lead a team of stars right from the get go, the mans could lead and be a general in a way few can. Rondo without the star filled celtics, or doc rivers, i cant see him being able to get that same respect, have that same poise. Jason kidd never had a jumper till he met dirk, but even still he was never accused of being afraid to shoot, the guy could score by posting up, by outquicking and out manuevering, he WOULD score when the team needed it, he found ways to get it done. He didnt pass up jumpers with time winding down. As a defender kidd has always been smart, not a gambler of steals, which he still got quite a bit, but an excellent man and team defender. Rondo is nowhere near the pg that kidd was, that kidd IS. And yet people often talk about him in rank as he surprassed kidd long ago, they often use his poor offensive judgements to not shoot or pass up shots as a beloved trait not realizing that two points is two points, they applaud him for his cheap antics because he is channeling the inner kg in him.

….I dislike rondo because he never earned my respect, the media shoved it down my throat and rondo, he never evolved his game to accept that uncalled reputation, he is still a gambling, cheap shotting, non-shooting over rated player he was 5 years ago. The increase in skill rondo has had in his 5 years in the league is less than the ammount of skill increase john wall has portrayed in the summer league games hes played.. When you guys say wall could be a better version of rondo, sometimes i feel like you guys insult wall, he is far better than rondo right now in my opinion. Sure rondo is a good passer, but then again its all he really is, its the only thing hes ever had to do on the basketball court and so i’d imagine that at some point he got really good at it. Thats not an excuse though, and thats certainly not enough to make him a great pg.

interestingly enough, Mike Prada in a recent post discussed briefly a hypotethical matchup between the wiz and celtics, and more importantly wall vs. rondo. In a blurb he stated this

Rondo’s a tough guy to classify of course, and I have little interest in making this a discussion about whether Rondo is overrated (he’s not).

I almost wanted to egg him on into explaining how rondo isnt over rated.

also on a side note, i downloaded the bulls celtics series (just game 4 and 6 since its all i could find on the internets) and honestly, if rose was anywhere close to how good he is now during that series, rondo wouldve never gotten a reputation of being a big 4 or anything. Not only that, tyrus thomas, ben gordon, john salmons, brad miller….and yes…kirk muthafukin hinrich, those guys looked awesome next to rose….i wish especially tyrus thomas could run with the current rose…and in thibs system