Rajon Rondo and the Boston Celtics came close to breaking new ground with tentative plans for the point guard to play a couple of rehab games in the NBA Development League before returning to games for the big club. But it looks like that ground will remain unbroken.
Rondo had intended to play for the Maine Red Claws, the Celtics’ D-League affiliate in Portland, Maine, in a game on Tuesday. He eventually backed out, however, apparently because of an encouraging practice in Denver on Monday that convinced him and the Celtics that he’s closer to 100 percent than they expected.
Either that, or he was worried about the boogeyman.
“I just changed my mind,” Rondo told reporters Friday in San Francisco. “Just didn’t want to do it. Had a bad dream.”
The day was chock-full of big news involving Rondo, even in the non-nightmare division. In the morning, he declared that he would be back before the All-Star break and a report in the evening tabbed Jan. 17 as his targeted return date.
Rondo has been practicing five-on-five with the Celtics for weeks, but he has said it will take him a few games to get back into basketball shape. He has not played since Jan. 25 of last year, when he tore his right ACL in a double-overtime loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
