See, that Globe journalist is doing is a lazy, knee-jerk #HotSportsTake.
Look at the leap Gasper makes here:
Some Celtics supporters would like to sweep this incident under the parquet, pointing out that Rondo didn’t get arrested, wave a gun at anyone, or strike his spouse. He went to a birthday party.
This is the nadir we’ve now reached in society? We’re supposed to give an athlete credit for not behaving like a criminal or miscreant? Rondo-philes, you’re working too hard to deploy the intellectual countermeasures here.
This is about more than taking a birthday break. It’s about whether Rondo is the type of personality you can build a team around. It’s about whether he is maturing or just getting older.
No. It's not. The only reason it would be about it being "more than taking a birthday break" is because Gasper's article doesn't get the soapbox he thinks it deserves otherwise. The false corollary he brings up is astounding. We're not supposed to applaud Rondo because he didn't get arrested or whatever, we're not giving it much mind because it's not a big deal.
Rondo skipped a game he wasn't going to play in, possibly without getting permission from his coach.
*makes vigorous self-simulation gesture*
So what?