Kentucky Sports Radio
[Moderated by Matt Jones, Drew Franklin and Tyler Thompson]
[Moderated by Matt Jones, Drew Franklin and Tyler Thompson]
Not only did Rajon Rondo produce his 9th career NBA Playoffs triple double on Saturday night, but he also ended the regular season with a Celtics franchise record of 24 consecutive double-figure assist games. Rondo has always been capable of scoring in spurts, but consistently puts up high numbers in assists and steals. Rondo’s time at Kentucky can be described as up-and-down, but there was no doubt he was a very special talent from the moment he stepped on campus. At Kentucky though, he also wasn’t always a prolific scorer, but I find it very interesting that even in high school Rondo set out to accomplish individual goals on the court other than scoring.
I encountered a few interesting UK-related nuggets in an article this morning from the Boston Herald. One of them describes Rondo’s effort to surpass another UK player’s single game assist record at Oak Hill Academy (none other than Cliff Hawkins). The other nugget suggests, which you can read by clicking to see the whole story here, that Tubby not only held back Rondo offensively at UK, but may have held him back on the defensive end as well. I don’t want to dwell on the topic of Tubby holding back Rondo at UK, so I’ll focus on the interesting story of when Rondo broke Cliff Hawkins’ single game assist record at Oak Hill Academy:
His second high school coach, Steve Smith of Oak Hill Academy, recently told a story of how Rondo came to set that school’s single-game assist mark.
“He wanted the assists record at Oak Hill,” said Smith. “It was 21, and it had been set by Cliff Hawkins, another guy who had gone on to Kentucky. So he comes up to me before a game and asks me what the record was. I told him it was 21, and he said, ‘OK, I’m going to get that tonight.’ He went out and had 31 assists in that game.”
How many high school All-Americans do you know of who would go out and try to set a new school assist record on a given night? Is Rondo unselfish for wanting to produce so many assists, even on his high school team? Maybe, but I don’t think his desire for assists is rooted in unselfishness, I just think he’s always been motivated to attain a variety of statistical goals other than scoring, as the Oak Hill story would suggest, which has made him such a great NBA player.
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May 28th, 2012 at 4:06 pm
Let’s dwell on the topic of Tubby holding back…
Rajon Rondo & Cliff Hawkins
If Cliff had come to Kentucky with Calipari as the Head Coach, he would be going on to successful NBA career.
May 28th, 2012 at 4:22 pm
He’s done it again! Another awesome post on this long weekend!
May 28th, 2012 at 4:27 pm
TLT should have been fired right after Rondo left UK….,TLT’s stubbornness in handling Rondo should have been the last straw, given Rondo’s talent and the others around him that wanted to run and play up tempo.
May 28th, 2012 at 4:27 pm
His UK career was all UPs for me. But I get that it’s the KSR line to say it was up & down. Not everybody went to UK when I, y’all, & he did. Most people I know feel as I do, and they could care less about his off-the-court drama. He brought it, and he was amazing to watch. Just because he didn’t match your expectations doesn’t mean he underwhelmed BBN.
May 28th, 2012 at 4:40 pm
completely irrelevant but I loved Cliff Hawkins at UK
May 28th, 2012 at 4:41 pm
I motivated him too! It wasn’t just the on-the-court stuff!
May 28th, 2012 at 4:42 pm
I’m motivated by dimes, too, Rajon.
May 28th, 2012 at 5:15 pm
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2nd link
May 28th, 2012 at 5:16 pm
I loved Rondo. Never saw him as up and down. I saw him as yoked by that idiot Tubby.
May 28th, 2012 at 6:34 pm
Love the cats. But Rondo isn’t wearing a UK jersey. GO MIAMI!
May 28th, 2012 at 10:24 pm
Rondo the great high school player, average college player and great pro player. Good going Tubby your the only person who could stop Rondo
May 29th, 2012 at 8:42 am
One more tidbit about that Oak Hill story is that people called that game (31 assists) a fluke so he went out and broke that record within a few games.
Rondo tied Wilt Chamberlin at #4 on the list I believe for most triple doubles in playoff history….3 more and he ties Larry Bird. Also, he has more triple doubles in the last four post-seasons than all other players added together!