Celtics fans should really start to focus on Rajon Rondo before games, because what they see could end up being just as eventful as the game itself.
Jason Terry discussed a number of topics during a recent interview with ESPN.com, and the veteran guard was asked which player on the Celtics has the most unique pregame routine. According to Terry, that honor belongs to Rondo.
“Rajon Rondo, for sure. His routine is long-winded, and it lasts all the way through tip-off,” Terry reportedly said. “It starts in the back hallway. He runs down a corridor and he throws the ball to our team chaplain, who throws it back. Then [Rondo] runs out into a circle, high-fives the whole team and then he does the layup lines for five minutes.
“Then he will stand under the goal, and Paul Pierce will shoot every ball on the rack from half court. Rondo will catch four balls at one time and then after that, it’s just amazing — one pass off the backboard to KG [Kevin Garnett], one bounce pass to Paul Pierce and then he throws it all the way up to the scoreboard, and Jeff Green finishes with an alley-oop.”
If you’re head is spinning after reading that, you’re probably not alone. Then again, Rondo is a pretty unique guy, so it’s only fitting that his pregame routine is so constructed yet so all over the place at the same time.
Terry said that Rondo carries out his routine before every game, including road games, and while JET has no idea how the ritual started, it’s something that definitely threw him off when he first started playing with the Celtics.
Terry, who made it a point to praise Pierce’s bowling skills, also revealed during his interview with ESPN.com that Courtney Lee is the team’s best dancer — although Lee isn’t alone in busting out a few moves.
“Courtney Lee. He doesn’t really have a go-to move,” Terry said. “He does every era [of] dance, so you can take it back to the old school, he can do new-school dances — he has a full repertoire of dance moves.
“Jeff Green, myself and Courtney Lee, we all do a little thing [before a game] where we’ll slap hands twice, I’ll fly in his direction, he’ll fly towards me and we’ll spin around. Then, we call Jeff Green ‘Iron Man,’ so we’ll open up our chests like ‘Iron Man’ and then Courtney Lee will come in with a crazy, goofy dance to end it off, and then we’ll go to the jump-off.”
Well, it certainly sounds like the Boston locker room is a rather wild place to be, but it also sounds like the team’s chemistry is really coming together. Perhaps that has something to do with the Celtics’ recent hot streak.
