Welcome to the NBA’s “How Not to Increase the Trade Value of Your Best and Potentially Most Available Player.”
Your host will be Boston Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck.
The subject matter will be Rajon Rondo.
And, finally, prepare to start scratching your head.
What Grousbeck did Sunday evening was weird. It wasn’t horrible or disrespectful; it was just weird.
Making an appearance on WBZ-TV’s Sports Final Overtime, Grousbeck touched upon Rondo’s future in Boston. Here’s what he said, per Adam Kaufman of Boston.com:
“He’s super stubborn,” revealed Grousbeck, adding Rondo is a good, generous kid who loves being in Boston. “I don’t know how coachable he really is.
“I know if you ask [former, long-time head coach] Doc [Rivers], ‘Was he the most coachable guy, or in the top half, 50 percent,’ he’d say, ‘No, he’s in the bottom 50 percent of being coachable.’ It’s hard with him,” Grousbeck continued.
Hot freaking damn.
Honesty like this can be endearing—you know, if the Celtics are planning to keep Rondo until the end of time or let him walk in free agency without trying to get anything substantial in return. If they’re hoping to extract value out of his inevitable departure or their unavoidable change in direction, well, Grousbeck isn’t helping things.
Most already know Rondo is hard to coach. Stories and tales—some of them undoubtedly tall—abound on that front. Rondo can be stubborn. He may challenge his coach. He may be hard to work alongside. But there’s something about hearing Boston’s owner confirm his hardheadedness that really sticks with you.
Perhaps it’s because Rondo’s play hasn’t done the talking for quite some time. He’s spent the last couple seasons battling and working his way back from injuries, and there have only been flashes of the player he used to be. This sabbatical from stardom renders him one of the NBA’s most uncertain cases.
Is he worth a max deal? Is he worth the price blockbuster-trade returns cost? Can he anchor a contender away from Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett?
It’s easy to overlook stubbornness and coaching difficulty when it means acquiring or retaining a superstar. If Rondo was Rondo—with a consistent jumper—then both the Celtics and any teams interested in his services would quickly gloss over his character complications. But with him still trying to recapture his previous swagger, the impact of his personality is amplified.
Between now and next season it could weigh heavily. His unpredictable demeanor could curb or obliterate the Celtics’ ability to trade him. It could prevent them from offering him a lucrative contract next summer. It could taper his market altogether.
And maybe that was the goal: eliminating competition. If Grousbeck and Danny Ainge are dead set on keeping Rondo in Beantown no matter what, this might be a good way to get him cheaper.
More likely, it’s Grousbeck just being honest. Comments like these aren’t very agenda-driven. Even if they were, it’s reversible.
All Rondo would have to do is let his play—not Grousbeck or his contentious personality—do the talking for him.
Dan Favale is a firm believer in the three-pointer as well as the notion that defense doesn’t always win championships. His musings can be found at Bleacherreport.com in addition to TheHoopDoctors.com.
