A word of advice: Never invite Rajon Rondo to your weekly poker game. Rondo’s face is set in stone, never betraying any emotion. Is he happy? Is he sad? Is he confused? It’s impossible to know. That’s what makes Rondo’s recent comments about his relationship with George Karl so infuriating.
“It’s not been going too well,” Rondo says when asked how his relationship with his new coach has been going this preseason. “We got into a couple arguments the last couple of days, but hopefully we can continue to talk and it can get better.”
Given that Rondo has a history of stubbornness and butting heads with coaches, a feud with Karl — who, it should be noted, is also notoriously stubborn — wouldn’t be all that surprising, even though the season has yet to start.
But we also can’t rule out the possibility that Rondo is simply being sarcastic. He’s rarely the most open player with the media, and it makes little sense for him to so candidly reveal a poor working relationship with Karl. When he and Rick Carlisle were at odds in Dallas last year, Rondo didn’t openly trash his coach to the media. If anything, he spoke with respect whenever he was asked about his then-coach.
Why, then, would Rondo take the exact opposite approach with Karl?
As is always the case with the capricious Rondo, there’s just no way of knowing. If there actually is a feud brewing, we’ll likely hear more about it soon.
