If you’ve had the unfortunate experience of listening to any sports radio the last few days you now know that Rajon Rondo is a punk, a terrible human being, and essentially responsible for anything bad that may have happened since he’s been alive.
People like Michael Felger, Tony Massarotti, John Dennis and Gerry Callahan hate Rajon Rondo. They call him names, question his motives for passing the ball to his teammates, field calls from lunatics who insist that Rondo yells at his teammates for getting rebounds HE wanted to get so he could pad his stat line (and agree with those callers) and makes statements that if Rondo is the leader of your team, you’re in big trouble.
These people don’t realize that Rajon Rondo is the closest thing the Celtics have ever had to Larry Bird, both in skill and temperament. Rondo is clearly not the shooter Bird was, but his all-around game and ability to see the floor and diagnose the action around him has not seen around these parts since Bird retired. Bird got into scuffles on and off the court, and cost his team at times. A bar fight, in the playoffs? I can’t even imagine the outcry if that happened now.
The fearsome foursome listed above don’t watch a whole lot of the Celtics. Gerry Callahan used to know the game pretty well, but he is now too busy working up his whiny indignation over the Patriots poor sportsmanship to actually digest what’s happening in the game. Michael Felger openly hates the Celtics, and unabashedly trashes them incessantly. Tony Massarotti goes along with anything Felger says, and adds in his own unintelligible, angry rantings to Felger’s amusement. You’ve got Donny Marshall on the CSNNE telecasts taking shots at Rondo, and realize that this guy was very close to Ray Allen, and the whole picture there suddenly becomes clearer.
To them, Rondo is an easy target. People who don’t follow the sport knowledgeably agree with their surface assessments. Rondo is surly. He loses control of his tempter. He can’t shoot very well. Sometimes his intensity isn’t as high as it is at other times. They somehow take his recent streak of double-digit assist games and make it in to a selfish thing, as if it is even possible to selfishly pass the ball to a teammate so they can score. It is typical of sports radio in the this era, and it is terrible.
As with most topics however, they’re off base. I’ve had my moments of frustration with Rondo, even at one point declaring myself “done” with him. I’ve changed my opinion, mostly because I’ve learned more about him and what he does with his teammates behind the scenes, and his ridiculous ability to show up in big games and completely outshine the likes of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.
Here’s an example.
An inside look at Rondo: To play with him is to know him – Read this Jessica Camerato feature and contrast it with what you’re told on sports radio all week. Is it even the same guy?
A guy like Christopher L. Gasper clearly only sees the surface. He’s not looking into the backstory stuff like in the Camerato piece. To him, and many others, leadership is only on the court. It’s what they can see. What he’s doing on the court, and most important of all – how he interacts with the media.
The Celtics have a lot of issues right now. Rondo is pretty low on the list, if he is there at all.
Get all the Celtics coverage at CelticsLinks.com.
The Patriots will visit South Florida this weekend for a game with the surprisingly tough Miami Dolphins. Bill Belichick gave as detailed a scouting report on the Dolphins as you’ll read this week – unasked – and it hardly even warranted a mention around here. They notice in Miami though – Belichick breaks down Fins personnel.
This game has been officially designated as a Trap Game. It’s also a Hat and T-Shirt game, as with a win, the Patriots can wrap up the AFC East on the 2nd of December. So which is it?
Debunking myths: Why Patriots won’t be trapped by Miami – Christopher Price isn’t buying the trap game tag, and a few other things about this one.
“It’s great and all that the Patriotsdefense keeps getting turnovers, but you can’t expect to get those every week. If they ever run into a good quarterback, they’re doomed! I know they won, but did you see how many yards (blank) threw for against them last week?! We’re screwed!”
Matt Chatham successfully captures the thinking and cries of the sky-is-falling crowd, and looks at the real important stat – the lack of turnovers by the Patriots offense.
Dont’a Hightower fits in on defense – Jeff Howe has the rookie linebacker already acting like a veteran leader.
Get all the Patriots coverage at PatriotsLinks.com.
MEDIA
Broadcasters found their voices at BC – Chad Finn talks with a number of well-known national broadcasters who got started together at WZBC in the late 80’s and early 90’s.
Boston’s Most Cerebral Football Columnist – Alan Segal has a Q&A with Greg A Bedard, who explains his approach to covering the Patriots and NFL.
Media Roundup – My SB Nation media column isn’t up quite yet, but when they do publish it, it will be a look at coverage of baseball’s winter meetings which start on Sunday, and how they’ve evolved into an event worthy of 24/7 coverage.
Boston Sports Media Watch 
I listen to Felger and Mazz and D&C every day, you’re way off base with D&C Hating Rondo. That is not the case of him. Have they been critical of his actions, sure. But they’e have praised him many times. Saying that they did not want him traded, etc. Felger and Mazz hate everyone, so you’re right about them.
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I lost count of how many times D&C (mostly Dennis) called him a punk the other day.
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They said that he’s a punk, but he’s our punk. They said there are players that if they played for other teams you would hate them. People around the league hate Rondo because he’s a punk. If he played for someone else, we’d hate him too. that was their point.
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To be honest, I like Rondo but some of the criticism is warranted. I haven’t listened to sports talk radio (life is too short), so I have no idea what they’re saying. I’m sure it’s exaggerated because let’s face it, that’s what they do. But I feel there are definitely times when Rondo needs to cool off and show better on court leadership. There’s nothing wrong with backing up your teammates, but taking that fight into the crowd was just plain old dumb. Not apologizing for it? Even worse IMO. Between this and the ref bumping incident in the playoffs, I feel people have a right to be skeptical of Rondo at times.
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I couldn’t agree more. Rondo does things nobody ever saw before. His intelligence is off the charts. When did you ever see somebody walk a rolling ball up the court, in order to maximize the 24-second clock, before Rondo did it? Throwing the ball off of somebody else when going out of bounds has become something you expect, not a rare happenstance. The guy is once-in-a-lifetime, and if some folks don’t quite get it, that’s their loss.
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You’ve never seen somebody do that rolling ball thing before Rondo? I’ve seen that thousands of times.
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D&C have probably been more defensive of Rondo than anyone else on the radio. I’m pretty sure calling him “our punk” was more a term of endearment than a criticism. And I don’t know how people can deny that Rondo has a tendency to act out and be an immature prima donna from time to time. He absolutely deserves criticism for the way he acted in that Nets game, and maybe even for the way he disrupted the flow of games while trying to keep a foolish streak no one cares about besides Rondo himself alive. Yes, it is possible to selfishly seek assists. Even Rondo proponents Grande & Max have said as much during broadcasts.
I love having Rondo on the Celtics (just not over Chris Paul or Derrick Rose), but people go wayyy over the top defending him and shouting down his critics. All these critics “don’t follow the sport knowledgeably”, “hate Rondo” and “call him names” (Felger aside)? Come on. So should everyone be praising him and patting him on the back after he makes a stupid mistake that costs his team a shot at winning a game (or multiple games in this case), much like this post seems to be doing?
I enjoy this site, but some of the posts I’ve read here more recently read like they were ghostwritten by Mikey Adams or Pete Sheppard. Blatant homerism.
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You don’t have to pat him on the back if you feel he did something stupid, but what Bruce is pointing out is that there are media members in this town that really don’t like this guy and whenever he does something that they don’t agree with they call him names. That’s awesome analysis.
And as far as some of the posts on this site lately I say Bravo Bruce! There are not a lot of places where the sports media members of this town are called out for their nonsense, and over the top reactions.
And why is the term homer such a slap in the face? Ooooohh this guy roots for the same teams that I claim to. But because he chooses not to focus on negative BS he’s a homer and somehow his viewpoints are irrelevant. That is the laziest argument any negative jerk can use. Sorry, but if we’re talking sports and you call me a homer I simply smile, because you just tapped out and I won the argument.
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But he’s wrong when he mentions Dennis and Callahan in that group of haters. They defend him as much as anyone, but still realize that he can be a punk.
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Sidebar but will come into play when Doc has to rest our “old guys”. If you missed it last night, Pop (Spurs) not only rested his bigs but sent them home ahead of Memphis. They almost beat Miami at home, in which would have been a major upset. This basically was a gigantic middle finger to Premier Stern (love it) and he lashed out. Leave it to Woj, to absolutely destroy Stern but be spot-on with the reaction:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba–david-stern-stumbles-again-in-his-failed-culture-war-against-the-spurs-194828970.html
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If you notice a bunch of comments from “different” people missing, it’s not because they we so out of line, but because they were all from the same person using different names. I don’t put up with that crap, so he’s gone.
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Gresh and Zo were doing it yesterday, too.
The thing is, in this case, no, he should not do this stuff. But to hammer on him /so hard/ about it is just /depressing/.
Nice Miami-Belichik link. I enjoy reading/listening him talk about football, when he’s not in turtle mode.
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dennis & callahan call Rondo a punk all the time but their is a big difference between a punk and being intense. In true NBA parlance, Rondo is not a punk player. A punk is a dirty player or a player who will try and hurt another player “accidentally on purpose” like Dikembe Mutombe or Dwayne Wade. Bill Laimbeer was a punk. Ron Artest and Brad Miller play punk basketball. Rondo doesn’t play punk even though he gets knocked around pretty good and is always picking himself off the floor. D&C are the punks in my book
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