Rajon Rondo admits to not playing defense for the Celtics the past couple years

Rondo: "I haven’t played defense in a couple years… But here they expect me to play defense.” Brad Stevens launches his laptop into a wall.
— Chris Forsberg (@ESPNForsberg) January 2, 2015

Worth noting that Rajon Rondo is a sarcastic fella, but this quote basically confirms what astute observers of the Celtics have noticed the past few years. Whereas Rondo used to be a great defender, at some point he regressed to simply being average. And then eventually became a poor defender for the Celtics. This fall actually started even prior to his ACL injury. Basically Rondo is admitting here that he wasn't giving forth the effort on a non contending Celtics team. Now that he's in Dallas, a legit contender, and Rondo is back to playing in the national spotlight his full effort has returned. Call it what you want, "National TV Rondo" or "Playoff Rondo," it wasn't a myth.

My feeling was Rondo wasn't going to return to playing defense on a sub-par Celtics team. He needed a change of venue to return to being an elite player and not just living off his past all-defense reputation. What sucks for the Celtics (and Celtics fans) is that if Rondo had been giving his all the past couple years, his trade value would have been much higher and our return would have been much better.




Rondo talks defense at the 4:40 mark.