Danny Ainge dispelled Stephen A. Smith’s report concerning Rajon Rondo in the most fitting way possible — by using the type of word Smith would use on ESPN First Take to describe the same rumor, had it been reported by somebody else.
“Ludicrous” was how Ainge described an ESPN.com report that the New York Knicks had “snubbed” a trade to acquire Rondo from the Boston Celtics, according to the Boston Herald. Smith himself probably gave Ainge a polite golf clap for his ten-cent vocabulary word.
“That’s all speculation,” Ainge told the Herald’s Steve Bulpett. “Those aren’t facts. People don’t know that, so it’s just people speculating on Rondo’s free agency next summer. That’s all that you’re hearing. You’re not hearing any facts from anybody. Those conversations haven’t even been discussed, so that’s just speculation.
In a long piece arguing in favor of the Knicks hiring Mark Jackson as coach, Smith claims New York had a “chance” at trading for LaMarcus Aldridge, Kyle Lowry or Rondo at the trade deadline this season. The Knicks’ failure to bolster their roster allegedly irked Carmelo Anthony, who has an early termination clause in his contract effective July 1.
Anthony has said he wants to stay in New York. He has also said he wants to win, though, and those situations seem to be mutually exclusive at the moment.
Photos via Twitter/@JxWags and @Basket_Infos
