Some encouraging Rondo facts and stats.

[nickagneta]

Rondo has the highest FG% of any starting PG in the league at 51.7%

Rondo's PER has climbed to 19.64 placing him at 36th in the league overall and 6th among all PGs.

Rondo is shooting 31-40 from the free throw line for a staggering(for him at least) .775 percentage in December and over his last 16 games is 45-60 for a .750 percentage.

Rondo is still only 22.

Rondo is third in the league in steals per game with 2.35

Rondo's December stats 14.5 PPG, 8.3 APG, 6.8 RPG, 3.3 SPG, 53.2 FG%, 77.5 FT%

Rondo must be our little secret because he is behind Gilbert Arenas in the All Star balloting. Yes the very same Gilbert Arenas that hasn't played a game all year and only 13 last year.

Rondo is in the Celtics control contractually through at least the 2010-11 season at only $1.6 million this year, $2.6 million next year, and has the qualifying offer the year after(most likely he'll get his nice extension at that time).

Rondo, Magic, and Tony Parker are the only starting PGs to have won a world championship at the age of 22 or less.

Rondo finished off his degree and graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2006 even though he left school early after his sophomore season.

Rondo has a picture of himself stealing the ball away from Sam Cassell while playing against the Clippers prominently displayed on his My Space page(LOL, love the cockiness).

Rondo is the youngest player in NBA Finals history to record 6 or more steals in a game.

Most encouraging fact: Rondo is a Boston Celtic 

[Redz]

Rondo finished off his degree and graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2006 even though he left school early after his sophomore season.

Probably the most impressive one right there.  That always says a lot about pro athletes when they dedicate themselves to finishing their degree even after they are financially secure.

[ma11l]

The college degree is a nice little unknown fact for most.  Okafor was given a lot of praise for getting his degree (I think maybe he got 2?) in 3 years, but no one really talks about Rajon getting his.


From a basketball standpoint the best stat for me is his age.  22, still not really near his prime. 

[incoherent]

great stats nick, Rondo has become everything and more since that first year battling against bassy for the pg...

it was clear to many of us Rondo deserved the starting PG spot from the get go and I'm glad he has gone above and beyond a lot of our expectations but really we knew he could do it.

go Rondo!

[nickagneta]

What amazes me is two things, Rondo's recent free throw shooting improvement and by barely taking any shot past five feet, he is not only leading PG's in shooting percentage but also increasing his scoring average. You would figure he wouldn't be able to get in the paint and be that effective with the other team knowing he's not ever going to take an outside shot. I think that speaks volumes for his penetrating and finishing abilities as well as his speed in getting the ball up court and past the defense before they set.

[celts55]

Let me be clear up front. I think Rondo has played great for the Celts and i don't believe they would have the record thay have without him. I do have a question about him that I would like to put out there. Do you think he's a good man on man defender? To me he seems to get beat quite often, but because he is so quick he can make up for it by slapping away the ball from behind, sometimes. I know he has a lot of steals and hustles all the time, but I think staying in front of him man is something he could work on. Just wondering if I'm alone in that thought.

[incoherent]

I think the C's play a team defense.  And staying in front of your man on the perimeter is nearly impossible for almost all NBA players.

The fact that Rondo hustles as much as he does and has great team defenders behind him I dont think he's doing anything wrong.  He has generated a lot, a lot, of steals from behind players just inside the 3point line.

[BballTim]

  Here's another impressive one: in 26 games he has 5 or more rebounds 15 times. Not bad for a 6'1 pg.

[Sweet17]

Agreed. After a rocky start he is play All-Star basketball for the most part..

[FanInTheSouth]

Rondo finished off his degree and graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2006 even though he left school early after his sophomore season.

Probably the most impressive one right there.  That always says a lot about pro athletes when they dedicate themselves to finishing their degree even after they are financially secure.

I completely agree.  I would much rather hear about this with athletes than I would some of the other crap the media puts out there.

I don't know why, but as soon as I read this I thought about Vince Carter, and the controversy around him attending graduation before a game 7 in the 2001 playoffs.  Even though I think Vince doesn't dedicate himself to the game as much as he should given his immense talent, I did appreciate the fact that his degree was important enough to him that he went to his graduation.  I wonder how I would have felt about it if I was a Raps fan?  I also wonder if the traveling affected his play.  He played the whole game and had a decent stat line, but his fg% wasn't great and he missed that last shot that could have won it.

Sorry about getting off topic on this one, but didn't really want to start a thread about this.

[hankfinkel]

Anyone have a link confirming Rondo graduated in 2006?  Seems pretty difficult to graduate in two years while playing major college basketball.  It's possible I guess, but I would think that kind of accomplishment would get some decent press as an amazing accomplishment and I do not see anything when I do a quick search. 

[ManUp]

Rondo finished off his degree and graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2006 even though he left school early after his sophomore season.

Probably the most impressive one right there.  That always says a lot about pro athletes when they dedicate themselves to finishing their degree even after they are financially secure.

Yeah, you beat me too it.

It's sometimes hard to know what you want to do and finish so quickly as well.

[nickagneta]

Anyone have a link confirming Rondo graduated in 2006?  Seems pretty difficult to graduate in two years while playing major college basketball.  It's possible I guess, but I would think that kind of accomplishment would get some decent press as an amazing accomplishment and I do not see anything when I do a quick search. 

Here's one. Rondo's MySpace page

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=368770796

[xmuscularghandix]

Let me be clear up front. I think Rondo has played great for the Celts and i don't believe they would have the record thay have without him. I do have a question about him that I would like to put out there. Do you think he's a good man on man defender? To me he seems to get beat quite often, but because he is so quick he can make up for it by slapping away the ball from behind, sometimes. I know he has a lot of steals and hustles all the time, but I think staying in front of him man is something he could work on. Just wondering if I'm alone in that thought.

i think he gambles alot, and its easier when he knows that he has the help behind him.

[LB3533]

I always thought Marcus Banks had the tools to be somewhat similar to a Rajon Rondo as an NBA player.....

The only problem with Marcus was that he didn't have Rajon's head.

What is interesting about Rondo is how would he have turned out if we didn't hand him the keys last year to be our Starting PG. It seemed as though we entrusted the team to him at a very young point in his career and he came through.