The Enigma of Rajon Rondo

From KSR College's Will Totten...   We all knew what we were witnessing was special, but we had no idea just how special it would become. It was 2003, and me and my dad were at the Louisville Invitational Tournament at the Louisville Gardens. Rondo and my alma mater Eastern High School were barely hanging on in the top 25 state basketball rankings, while they were taking on future UofL player Terrance Farley and #1 ranked PRP in the LIT semifinals. Eastern had already somewhat shockingly won 2 games to reach that point, leaving them 2 wins short of the school's first LIT title. But more than the championship, that night for me, and thousands of others was about Rajon Rondo from beginning to end. It wasn't until I witnessed him score 47 points, and completely dominate the unanimous #1 team in the state single-handedly with a barrage of steals, rebounds, and blocks that I knew he was destined for stardom.  Flash forward 9 years later and you see Rajon knifing through defenses with a collection of pump fakes, handles, and precision passes on his way to a 44 point, 8 rebound, and 10 assist performance. But he wasn't playing in the LIT this time, instead the stage for his Herculean performance was Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals in South Beach, and standing across from him wasn't PRP and Terrance Farley, but instead NBA MVP Lebron James and the Miami Heat. At only 26 years old, he has already exceeded everyone's expectations, but on a national scale, he is still widely disrespected by the national media until an "In-Your-Face" game like he had in Game 2. There lies the enigma of Rajon Rondo.     After his time at Eastern, Rondo experienced great success leading Oak Hill Academy to a 38-0 record and a National Championship before moving on to the University of Kentucky. He was always a talent, perhaps even the most talented in a Kentucky recruiting class that featured 3 of the Top 10 players in the country, but during his time in Lexington, there was an obvious rift between Rondo and the rest of the team, especially Coach Tubby Smith. As one of the fastest and quickest players to ever don the Blue and White, it must have been frustrating for a 19-year old to shelve his god given athletic ability in return for "Tubby Ball". After reaching the Elite Eight his Freshman year in 2005, his sophomore season was less than stellar. The team never got it going, finishing 22-13 and bowing out in the 2nd Round of the NCAA's to UCONN, although Rajon did average 11 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists a game, including a UK-record 19 rebounds in an early-season game against Iowa. With all of the inner tension between the team, coaching staff, and Rajon, it wasn't necessarily a surprise to see him forego his final 2 years of eligibility to enter the NBA Draft. But in a Draft that would produce only 3 future All-Stars, Rondo still managed to slip all the way to the 21st pick where he was selected by the Phoenix Suns, behind future superstars such as Oleksiy Pecherov, and Renaldo Balkman, where he was immediately traded to the Boston Celtics for Brian Grant and the 24th pick in the 2007 Draft, which turned out to be Rudy Fernandez. His NBA Draft Profile explains why he fell so much:

 His outside shot has become better but with improvement in this area, defenders will have to respect that facet of his game which will make it impossible to keep him from getting into the lane. Still must become more under control as he can become erratic at times. His defense still must improve. Must learn to be a complete point guard with the ability to dictate the tempo and get everyone involved

It is common knowledge among NBA circles that maybe the only thing holding Rajon Rondo back from being the best PG in the NBA is his shooting ability, however, in this series against the Heat, Rondo has showed a confidence in his jump shot that we have not seen before from him, especially in his career-high 44-point outburst in Game 2. His unorthodox style of play, lack of a consistent outside shot, and his style of leadership have been concerns for the Celtics since they acquired him, even going so far as to shop him around for trades on 2 separate occasions. But why would a team want to trade a player who is now almost certainly considered one of the top 5 PG's in the league? Enigma. Despite his talent, it was always believed that Rondo and Doc Rivers would continually butt heads, especially on a team featuring 3 future Hall of Famers who are at the tail end of their careers. The Celtics are at a transition in their franchise currently, Rondo has taken the team over from the Big Three and proved himself, in the present, as the best player on the team. Now, tied 2-2 with the supremely talented, and immeasurably younger Miami Heat, this may be Rondo's last shot at his 2nd NBA Championship for awhile, considering the youth movement in the Eastern Conference with teams like Chicago, Philadelphia, and Indiana all on the rise. The enigma of Rajon Rondo is that he is not normal. He's a 6'1 guard with the wingspan of a power forward, and the leaping ability of a forward to boot. There may be no player as athletic as Rondo in the league, with his combination of quickness, explosiveness, and pure speed with the ball. He has an unorthodox style, reminiscent of a modern-day Pete Maravich, leaving defenses hanging, tongues out with his deadly combination of passing and misdirection. He's still a below-average shooter,  but with defenses sagging defenders away from him like he has the flu, he has still managed to get to the rim almost at will, and rarely makes a wrong decision when passing. He, in my eyes, defensively, the best PG in the league, capable of taking on others with a size advantage on him with his freakishly long arms and quickness. So, in that description, you see the negative and the positives of Rajon Rondo. But also, in that I see what's wrong with professional scouting and analysis. Instead of focusing on what he doesn't do as well, why not focus on the things he does EXCEPTIONALLY well, such as leading the NBA in Assists Per Game this year at 11.7, and averaging nearly a triple-double (24PPG, 7RPG, 11APG) through the first 4 games of the Eastern Conference Finals. Watching Rajon tear by Mario Chalmers the same way he tore by whatever poor soul from PRP was given the task of guarding him 9 years ago at the Louisville Gardens is incredible for me, as I believe what we are watching is the development of one of the best PG's we will see in our generation. I just hope it doesn't take too long for the national media to finally recognize it.