Rajon Rondo is a strong-willed, hard-headed basketball player who is not easy to coach. That’s pretty common knowledge. It’s just a little different when an owner says it.
Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck was a guest on WBZ-TV’s “Sports Final Overtime” Sunday and talked about Rondo as a player. He says he wants Rondo to remain with the team in the future and praised the point guard, but he did question how coachable the team leader is.
Here is a transcription of Grousbek’s comments via Boston.com:
“He’s super stubborn,” Grousbeck said of Rondo. “I don’t know how coachable he really is.
“I know if you ask [former, long-time head coach] Doc [Rivers], ‘Was he the most coachable guy, or in the top half, 50 percent,’ he’d say, ‘No, he’s in the bottom 50 percent of being coachable.’ It’s hard with him,” Grousbeck continued.
This meshes with the notion that Doc Rivers had extreme difficulties dealing with Rondo. There have even been suggestions that Doc was motivated to leave Boston for the Clippers at least partially due to the struggles coaching Rondo.
At least for now, Brad Stevens and other Celtics leaders say they want Rondo back with the team, but who knows if that will stick. Rondo supposedly has told the team he wants to be traded, and they may be willing to do that if they can get the right return.
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