BOSTON — Brad Stevens looked uncomfortable.
Due to the larger-than-usual media corps at Friday night’s game, the Celtics coach moved his pregame question-and-answer session from a back hallway in TD Garden to an impromptu press conference room. Instead of being huddled with reporters, Stevens stood behind a microphone on a small riser, looking down on his interviewers.
As awkward as he might have felt, Stevens probably felt even more awkward about the reason for the limelight. His boss, Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge, had completed a trade less than 24 hours earlier to ship franchise point guard Rajon Rondo to the Dallas Mavericks.
The last vestige of the Celtics’ last championship team no longer was wearing green. And the second-year coach, as best he could, tried to sum up why that was such a big deal to the organization and its fans.
“Obviously, we all feel like Rajon had a tremendous impact — I’m understating it, stating the obvious here — that he had a tremendous impact on this organization and this city, certainly, as a championship member of the Celtics,” Stevens said. “To a man in that locker room, the coaching staff and the players certainly wish him nothing but the best.”
Yet despite Stevens’ glowing tribute, Rondo might have supplanted former Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez as Boston’s most polarizing athlete. Even as he racked up triple-doubles with dazzling dribbling and passing displays, Rondo was accused of being mercurial, aloof and uncoachable.
He reportedly clashed with former coach Doc Rivers and alienated former teammate Ray Allen. Yet Rondo was Stevens’ greatest ally from the moment Stevens was hired away from Butler.
Stevens said he never caught the supposed wrath — or, worse, indifference — of Rondo.
“No, never, not from him,” Stevens said. “Whether in practice, whether at games, whether organizing team meals with or without the staff, he never looked disengaged. Credit to him, he was always a part of the team and wanted to be a part of the team and did his best. It’s part of the reason we’re so appreciative of what he meant to the whole room.”
The Rondo trade saga seemingly dragged on for years, yet the ending felt abrupt. Two days earlier, Stevens talked excitedly about the possibilities of a two-point guard matchup with Rondo and Phil Pressey. Suddenly, the coach was bidding adieu to his starting point guard.
“It’s the hardest part between being a pro coach and a college coach, when you kind of know the timeline on when (players) are going to leave and you can mentally prepare yourself for that,” Stevens said. “Sometimes in the pros, with trades and those types of things, you can’t prepare as well. From our standpoint, we look at it when somebody is traded more as the person than the basketball player, so that’s certainly emotional any time.”
Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images
