To Rondo, with love

In the book 'Song Book' Nick Hornby spends an entire chapter discussing his love for pop music, specifically, the song 'I'm Like a Bird' by Nelly Furtado. Hornby discusses the 'experience' of discovering a simple pop music; it entering his life, him enjoying it, then him dissecting the song until he figures out what he likes about the song. Once he's able to make that determination, the songs finished to him. He doesn't need to hear it any further.

Boston Celtics fans spent the majority of Rajon Rondo's tenure trying to figure him out. But a pop song, Rajon is not. I'd call him jazz, but even that seems like a massive understatement. Sure, Jazz can be erratic, but not, Rajon Rondo erratic. I suppose we should've known that we'd never be able to 'solve' him. After all, he's a 28 year old NBA Point Guard whose passions outside of the game of basketball are Connect 4, Roller Skating, and taking an ungodly amount of showers throughout the day.

He's unique in every sense. In a league filled with copy cats, Rondo, astoundingly, is a completely one of a kind player; an electric, pass-first point guard with a flawed jump shot, and mind boggling passing skills and vision.

Comically, even his departure was very Rondo. "Surely, this wasn't enough value for him.... was it?", "The Celtics couldn't keep building around him... could they?"

And now, he's gone. Eight years of debate has come to a conclusion, and I'm still not sure how much we know about him. I don't know how valuable he is. I don't know where he ranks in the league when it comes to point guards. I'm not exactly sure what kind of players he plays well with. I'm not sure what makes him go.

Here's what I do know; I miss Rondo terribly.

Some will point out that he's the last member of the 2008 team. Others will point out that he was a generation of Celtic's fans "guy". And while there's certainly validity to those points, to me, more than anything I miss watching the guy play basketball for my favorite team.

Watching Rajon Rondo play night in and night out was nothing short of a delight. Sure, there's the big moments, and they were and remain completely awesome; the loose ball against the Orlando Magic, the tip-in against the Lakers, the dismantling of the Cavaliers, the time he took on Miami with one freaking arm, just to name a few. The idea that anyone would say that, that player, the four time All-Star, and NBA Champion, the guy who did those kind of things, wasn't a 'true Celtic' is completely asinine.

But to me, what I loved most about watching Rondo,was knowing that every time I sat down to watch him play I might see something I have never seen before. Describing those plays sound like you're reciting old Bird vs. Jordan H-O-R-S-E commercials; The ridiculous, physics-defying, behind-the-head, left-handed, how-in-the-hell-did-he-know-Ray-Allen-was-there pass against Denver, the jumping, mid-air, behind the back pass, against Golden State, the off-the-tip, quick-release, full-court touchdown to Bradley in Detroit, etc.

Maybe he wasn't the face of the face of the franchise. He certainly wasn't our emotional center. But Rajon Rondo made watching the Boston Celtics a joy. That might not sound like a lot to everybody, but to a small core, it means the world.

Thank you, Rondo



Think Rondo is kind of weird? Follow me on twitter: @MattDotRich