Former NBA point guard Rajon Rondo played on nine different teams before the end of his career, but his stint with the Mavericks will always be considered the worst. The relationship got so bad between Rondo and head coach Rick Carlisle at the time, that the Mavericks had him fake an injury so he wouldn’t have to suit up for them again.
“What happened in Dallas was, they’re like, ‘[Rick Carlisle] doesn’t want to coach you anymore, so we’re going to say your back is hurting and you’re done playing.’ I said, ‘Oh okay f*ck it’ and I shot to Miami. Those muthaf**cers said Rick doesn’t want to coach you with Donnie Nelson on the phone, and Bill Duffy! And that’s why every time I go back to Dallas I get booed like it’s if I quit on the organization. I’ve never quit on anything in my life!”
“They’re like, [Rick Carlisle] doesn’t want to coach you anymore, so we’re going to say your back is hurting and you’re done playing.”
“That’s why when I go back to Dallas, every time I get boo’d like it’s if I quit on the organization… I’ve never quit on anything in life.”
-… https://t.co/zuj4VVlThp pic.twitter.com/jEmMDxXzjn
— Run It Back (@RunItBackFDTV) May 28, 2024
Rondo only played 46 games for the Mavericks, averaging 9.3 points, 6.5 assists, and 1.2 steals per game on 43% shooting. He went from over 33 minutes per game with the Celtics in the year prior down to 28. And while the Mavericks finished with 50 wins that season, Rondo was completely out of the equation by the playoffs and he’d sign with the Sacramento Kings a few months later.
Rondo is no longer in the NBA, and Carlisle is now with the Indiana Pacers leading Tyrese Haliburton. When Rick was hired there, Rondo was one of the first to talk to Tyrese about it and it’s where he made his issues with Carlisle known.
“When I first got to Dallas, they told me, ‘We want you to be J-Kidd, we want you to do your thing as far as quarterbacking the team.’ So I get there and I’m a couple of months in and I’m trying to sit back and learn like a sponge,” said Rondo. “In that one particular game, I try to flip a play to the other side [of the floor] and that’s when Rick was like, ‘What the f*ck are you doing?’ He starts stomping and sh*t like that on the floor. As a man, that’s disrespectful.”
The scene between Carlisle and Rondo went viral on social media. As Rondo tried to make the mid-game adjustment, Carlisle immediately shut it down and proceeded to yell, scream, and stomp at Rondo as he relegated him to the bench. Rondo felt disrespected at the moment and couldn’t help but retaliate with some words of his own.
The encounter was arguably as heated as it gets between a player and coach, so much so that Carlisle decided he could no longer tolerate working with Rondo every day. When he eventually landed his job current with the Pacers, Rondo saw fit to give warnings to his fellow players and colleagues.
To this day, the situation with Rondo and the Mavericks has never quite been resolved and fans still resent him over how his lone season there played out. Considering the veteran point guard would lead the league in assists the following season (11.7 per game for the Kings), he still had plenty to give on the court and the Mavericks could have surely used him during their series loss to the Rockets in the first round.
Thank you for being a valued reader of Fadeaway World. If you liked this article, please consider following us on Google News. We appreciate your support.
