Rajon Rondo calls Chris Paul a terrible teammate, former players agree





Days after the Rajon Rondo and Chris Paul altercation that took the NBA world by storm, there's still wake left behind in the water. The punches thrown took a back seat behind the (potential?) spitting that allegedly happened, and then again to the chain of comments made by players and even team executives.

In an interview with ESPN.com, Rondo continued to deny spitting and hinted that, if anything, it was just an accident caused by his mouth guard and the uncontrollable spit that comes with it. He proceeded by providing evidence that, despite the fight, he was innocent in this regard:

"I had a mouthpiece in my mouth and I was exasperated because I was about to tell him to ‘get the [expletive] out of here.’"

"Look at my body language [in the video]. My hands on my hips. I turn away for a second. Look at Eric [Gordon] and Melo [Carmelo Anthony] in the video. If they saw me spit, they would have turned their face up or something. They had no reaction.”

[…]

“One, if I spit on you, bottom line, there is not going to be no finger-pointing. If you felt that I just spit on you, then all bets are off. Two, look at my body language. If I spit on you on purpose, I’m going to be ready for a man to swing on me. You ain’t going to have my hands on my hip and my head look away at someone if I spit on them. After the [expletive] goes down, within 30 seconds, you run and tell the sideline reporters that I spit on you? If I spit on you, you are trying to get to me. You not trying to make up a story so you can look like a good guy. It makes no sense to me.

“I was going to let it rest. I wasn’t going to say much. But now I have kids and I teach my kids to speak up for themselves and don’t let the world tell their story.”

In other words, Rondo's defense is that Paul, Paul's teammates, and himself in no way acted as if there was any spitting. He even claimed that the "video evidence" showing spit was tampered with. He conveniently left out the fact that you can see CP3 wiping his face following it, but still - Rondo's point here is that if it was intentional, people would've known it.

The heated Rondo soon took things a step further, though. Upset that CP3 was handed a smaller suspension than him, he exploded with comments that attacked Chris Paul's character and ability to be a good teammate:

“Of course, the NBA went with his side because I got three games and he got two,” Rondo told ESPN. “Everyone wants to believe Chris Paul is a good guy. They don’t know he’s a horrible teammate."

These comments ignited another wave to the Rondo-Paul feud, and considering both players have had some history with chemistry issues, the debate really became: Which player is the worse teammate?

As most Celtics fans know, Glen "Big Baby" Davis has his foot in both camps after playing with Rondo in Boston and Paul in Los Angeles. Big Baby was loved on the Celtics and, along with Rondo, played a role in raising the 2008 Championship banner at TD Garden. Perhaps this makes him a bit biased (since he never even made the Western Conference Finals with CP3 and the Clippers), but Baby clearly sided with Rondo: "I played with both of them. CP3 is a very bad teammate," Davis announced via his Instagram account. He even weighted in about the spit itself, claiming Rondo never spat and that "Chris Paul a [expletive]."

Ryan Hollins, who has his also been teammates with both of our culprits while on the Celtics and Clippers, sided with Rondo as well:



Hollins was asked about Paul, in which he commented that the Rockets All-Star has "some growing to do."

So far, it sounds like players are siding with Rondo. However an NBA executive has also chimed in. Rockets general manager Daryl Morey didn't appreciate Rondo attacking one of his players' character. The GM not-so-subtly spoke out via a cryptic tweet on social media:



With this image, Morey is basically calling Rondo - who has has his fair share of teammate issues - a hypocrite. How juicy!


Where will this feud lead to next? For now, we can circle December 13th on our calendars - the next time the two meet on the court.


Follow Erik J on Twitter: @erikjohnson32

Photo via RACHEL NICHOLS/TWITTER
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