With Rajon Rondo’s tenure with the Dallas Mavericks seemingly over, the decision to trade the point guard will go down as another win for Danny Ainge.
Ainge never could have predicted Rondo’s swift downfall in Big D, however, the Boston Celtics’ president of basketball operations said Thursday in a radio interview.
“I’m very surprised,” Ainge told 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Toucher & Rich.” “I thought it would be a good fit for the Mavericks and Rajon. I don’t really know what’s going on down there. I read a little bit (Wednesday) and heard some things, but I’m very surprised. I thought it would work out well for both people.”
The end for Rondo came Tuesday, when he played just 10 minutes in the Mavericks’ Game 2 playoff loss to the Houston Rockets. The team announced the following day he would be out indefinitely with a “back injury,” and coach Rick Carlisle said he believed Rondo had played his final game as a Maverick.
“I don’t know what’s going on down there,” Ainge said. “Rajon was terrific here with coach (Brad) Stevens. I think they got along. The whole question is, Rondo was good this year for us. He worked really hard in the offseason. I really did think it was going to be a big year for him, and Rajon just hasn’t played as well, for whatever reason, as he hoped and as we had hoped and as the Mavericks had hoped.”
Cleveland Cavaliers center and ex-Celtic Kendrick Perkins also discussed his former teammate’s situation Thursday morning at shootaround.
“Sometimes things don’t work out,” Perkins told reporters at TD Garden, via MassLive.com. “That doesn’t mean either party is in the wrong or either party is bad people. It’s just, situations don’t work. People have to understand that this is a job. There’s probably people that you see at your job that you don’t get along with also. And just, things don’t work out.”
The Celtics and Cavs will play Game 3 of their first-round playoff series Thursday night. It’ll be Perkins’ first postseason game at the Garden since he was traded by the Celtics during the 2010-11 season.
Thumbnail photo via Jerome Miron/USA TODAY Sports Images
