According to Ainge:
“He let Brad know and he let me know that he was going to stay in L.A. an extra day,” Ainge said in his weekly interview on 98.5 The Sports Hub. “We didn’t think that he should, but [told him] ‘It’s your choice and there may be consequences if you stay.’ It’s that simple.”
So, it sounds like the team didn't say yes, but didn't exactly say no, either, then perhaps leaked the details to the media as a lesson.
To me, this makes Rondo look worse. If your manager or boss says we don't think you should do it but it's your choice, you may want to listen to the guys that are your superiors.
To me, this makes Ainge and Stevens look worse because they are putting his relatively meaningless presence on the sideline ahead of a chance to be with his family. And then imposing the 'consequences' of (a) leaking this to the media and (b) not throwing water on the silliness fire until it had burned out of control for over a week.
If I treated my employees like that, I'd probably not be getting a lot of love, loyalty & respect back. If I knew one of my people had no critical role to play in our work one day and asked for a rare night off to celebrate his birthday with his family, there is no way I would not say, "yes".
Part of being a leader is treating your employees like people with real lives outside of work.
People talk about whether Rondo showed 'leadership' with this incident.
How well did Brad & Danny do?
I like Rondo the player but he is not a captain or a leader in my eyes...
I guess if you are one of the players on the team, that would be a problem.