Why Does Rajon Rondo Have so Much Beef with Isaiah Thomas?
Rajon Rondo has a weird, inexplicable infatuation with Isaiah Thomas.
Both count themselves as former Boston Celtics, but they've neither been teammates nor direct rivals. And yet, Rondo clearly harbors an abundance of ill will for his fellow point guard.
Take his reaction to the Celtics planning a tribute video for Thomas, per the Worcester Telegram and Gazette's Bill Doyle:
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Strong feelings.
Please don't cite Rondo's allegiance to Paul Pierce, who was slated to have his No. 34 jersey retired on the night in question, as cause for his disdain. That gives him too much credit. Thomas kiboshed Boston's tribute-video plans hours before Rondo indulged his inner toddler with a full-tilt temper tantrum.
Fast forward to Wednesday night, almost a month after this no-purpose display of elitism. Rondo and Thomas, now of the Los Angeles Lakers, were ejected late in the first quarter of the New Orleans Pelicans' eventual 139-117 victory following this little kerfuffle:
Surely this altercation is in no way tied to Rondo's anti-IT sentiments from January—er, never mind.
"He kept bringing the tribute up, when I was the one who shut the tribute down," Thomas said, per ESPN.com's Ohm Youngmisuk. "I'm far past that."
"I mean, my team (Celtics) beat his team (Chicago Bulls) in the playoffs last year," he added when pressed about the impetus for Rondo's scorn. "Maybe that is why. I don't know."
Head-to-Head Bitterness
Thomas does bring up a good point: His Celtics are responsible for dispatching Rondo's Bulls from the first round of last year's playoffs. But that reasoning rings extremely hollow.
Chicago jumped out to a 2-0 series lead with Rondo in the fold only to drop four straight games after a fractured right thumb indefinitely displaced him from the best-of-seven set. If anything, he has bragging rights over Thomas and the Celtics.
The Bulls outscored them by a total of 17 points in the 67 minutes he spent on the floor, compared to the minus-58 they posted without him. He also played an integral role in limiting Thomas to a 6-of-15 clip, with five turnovers, during Game 2.
So, no, Rondo's stewing wrath cannot be traced back to their postseason tussle. But what about their other matchups?
These two have faced off in 11 regular-season battles, through which Rondo's teams are a suboptimal 3-8. Thomas has also outplayed him at nearly every turn:
- Rondo per game: 6.7 points, 5.5 rebounds, 8.6 assists, 1.8 steals 35.6/33.3/37.5 shooting slash
- Thomas per game: 18.4 points, 2.7 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 1.5 steals, 49.3/42.4/81.4 shooting slash
Even this might be a stretch—notable differences and all. Again: Rondo has the "Woo boy, if I were healthy last year, we'd have steamrolled you" card in his back pocket. Two playoff games isn't much, but he averaged nearly a triple-double and made Thomas work for his half-court scoring opportunities.
Statistical Jealousy?
Although Thomas didn't even spend three full seasons with the Celtics, he's responsible for two of their best individual campaigns ever.
Last year, while averaging 28.9 points and 5.9 assists with a ridiculous 62.5 true shooting percentage, he posted the highest offensive box-plus minus (8.7) in franchise history, comfortably surpassing Hall of Famer Larry Bird (7.5). Both of his full-season OBPMs with Boston, in fact, fall inside the team's top seven.
Rondo, by comparison, doesn't have a top-50 showing to his name and only appears in the top 100 twice (Nos. 60 and 67). And whereas the Celtics could barely function without Thomas on the floor—their offensive rating plummeted in both 2015-16 and 2016-17 whenever he took a breather—they averaged the same number of points per 100 possessions or more sans Rondo in each of his final three seasons.
Context matters here. Rondo battled injuries and roster overhauls during his swan-song years in Boston.
Plus, as much as this might break our hearts, most NBA players probably don't spend free time pitting their OBPMs and on-off splits against same-position counterparts.
General Jealousy?
Boston at large made a big to-do of Thomas' departure.
"What Isaiah did was special. Isaiah's impact is special," Celtics head coach Brad Stevens told NBC Boston shortly after Thomas was dealt to the Cleveland Cavaliers and published his love letter to Boston on The Players' Tribune. "I love Isaiah and I'm glad that he'll always have that here. He'll always have impacted Boston in that way. And obviously that's the really hard part about this, from a coach's or player's perspective, is within any change there's an emotional cost that's attached, and that's a pretty significant emotional cost."
"It was definitely the toughest call I ever had to make," team president Danny Ainge explained to the Boston Globe's Gary Washburn.
Responses to Rondo's exit don't even hold a candle to these emotional spillings.
"We're thankful, appreciate and we all recognize his contributions," Stevens told reporters after Rondo was shipped to the Dallas Mavericks in 2014. "And then we have to focus on the team in the locker room, and we have to focus on playing our best every game."
"It was hard," Ainge said at the time. "It was very difficult to move Rajon. I know that it's a business in professional sports, but you really develop a lot of close relationships. And I loved watching Rajon. I loved visiting with him."
In fairness to Rondo, Stevens didn't coach him for long. He barely mustered 50 appearances during the season-and-change they spent together.
To be even more fair, Rondo didn't forge the most peachy-keen relationship with Doc Rivers, who coached him for seven years in Boston. Just before Doc facilitated his relocation to the Los Angeles Clippers, Sheridan Hoops' Chris Sheridan reported the head honcho quartered an "intense dislike" for his point guard.
Rivers now looks back more fondly on his relationship with Rondo—which, of course, included a championship in 2008. But he also admits there were times he wanted to choke him:
Additional context once again matters here. The Celtics traded Rondo as part of what was supposed to be a more gradual rebuild. His timeline, at 27 going on 28, no longer aligned with their window.
Thomas, meanwhile, received the shaft after an Eastern Conference Finals bid, at a time when he was considered the face of the franchise and the heartbeat of the city. The abruptness of Boston's pivot to Kyrie Irving gave way to rawer reactions. It caught everyone off guard. Rondo's departure was closer to overdue than unexpected.
Still, Thomas isn't an NBA champion. Rondo helped bring the organization a title. Thomas left as the symbol for a profoundly impactful, albeit brief, period in Celtics history, right down to his recruitment of both Gordon Hayward and Al Horford. Rondo shuffled off to Dallas as the memento of a bygone era. Perhaps that doesn't sit right.
Lingering Anger Over the Trade That Never Was?
Maybe Rondo's rancor stretches back even further, to 2014, before Thomas ever joined the Celtics.
A league source told Marc J. Spears, then of Yahoo Sports, Boston discussed a deal with the Sacramento Kings leading into the trade deadline that would have landed Thomas, Ben McLemore and a pick in Beantown for Rondo. As his Wednesday-night dust-up with Thomas proves, Rondo isn't above holding a grudge.
If he knew the Celtics were trying to replace him with the 5'9" spark plug, either out of genuine interest or sheer convenience, he'd most definitely let it fester. That he quashed said trade by using his foray into 2015 free agency as leverage, only to have Boston net Thomas from the Phoenix Suns the following season after sending him to Dallas, does nothing to assuage his potential resentment.
(Aside: How great is it that Rondo used his 2015 free agency to deter the Kings from acquiring him yet wound up signing with them anyway that summer? Good times.)
Annoyed IT Lasted Longer in Phoenix?
Rondo was technically drafted 21st overall by the Suns in 2006, but they immediately flipped him to the Celtics with Brian Grant for a 2007 first-rounder. (FYI: That pick became Rudy Fernandez, who Phoenix then shipped with James Jones to the Portland Trail Blazers for cash...because, Suns.)
This wouldn't register on our radar if not for "The Celtics aren't the Suns" dig Rondo dropped while crapping all over a tribute video Thomas had, again, effectively tabled. And while the Pizza Guy lasted just 46 games in Phoenix, that's 46 more than Rondo.
Ultra-petty? Sure. But far be it from us to rule out something so ostensibly benign when Rondo actually has such a thing as a tribute-video beef.
(Another aside: When you have a chance, relive the wonky journey of the pick that became Rondo. It exchanged hands approximately six kajillion times between August 2004 and June 2006.)
Disappointed by His Own Tribute Video?
Watching the Celtics' commemorative Rondo montage from Jan. 2, 2015 doesn't reveal anything sinister. He could be cheesed off that they squeezed it in between the first and second quarters, but they did the same thing for Pierce's dedicatory melange.
Actually, on second watch*, I can honestly see why Rondo might remain peeved more than three years later:
(*Just so we're clear: This is not real.)
So...The Verdict?
How the heckity heck should we know?
It seems Thomas is spot-on when he pleads ignorance to Rondo's acerbity. Nothing between the two sticks out as anything a rational human person would use to foster some semblance of rage.
Unless Rondo is angling for a spot on LeBron James' next team, his repulsion for Thomas can reasonably be chalked up to pangs of jealousy and general crankiness.
Oh, and by the way, to answer Rondo's question of what Thomas has done for Boston, try this:
- Helped recruit Al Horford
- Had two of the best offensive seasons in Celtics history
- Played 38 minutes one day after the death of his sister, Chyna
- Played 45 minutes the day after having dental surgery
- Led team to the Eastern Conference Finals
- Tried playing through a mangled hip
- Helped recruit Gordon Hayward
Props and stuff to Rondo for his ring. And Thomas, as he showed during his stay in Cleveland, is hardly perfect.
But revising his time with the Celtics to include a void, as if he did nothing, is bush-league pettiness.
Unless otherwise cited, stats courtesy of NBA.com or Basketball Reference and accurate leading into games on Feb. 15.
Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@danfavale) and listen to his Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by B/R's Andrew Bailey.
