Jackie Mac "Rondo has told the Celtics he wants out- it will happen"

[chambers]

My suspicion is that Jackie can't get her bosses to sign off on a story about why and whether Rondo's departure is imminent because no one in the Boston front office is willing to go on the record about it beyond a 'no comment.'

That's not how it works.  Since when did her bosses let a "no comment" from a front office prevent them from running a story?

Which is more likely...

1.  Jackie has a piece of super juicy information that literally NO ONE ELSE ON EARTH HAS but they're not running with it.

2.  Jackie doesn't actually have any hard info and was just BS-ing.

Mike

exactly.  You also gotta add that she decided to let these other guys know said super juicy info for no reason whatsoever.....annnddd Rondo did this but he and his agent have decided to lie about it for the time being, knowing they will essentially be exposed later.

I'm going with wishful BSing, exaggerating, and speculating.

She's a human and prone to human mistakes.  So am I. I could be wrong.

So she was never told anything, by any source that has inside information regarding the Celtics front office?
So quite simply she's made it up/speculating even with her overall good to very good reputation? Okay.

I'm also laughing at the repeated suggestions in this thread that Jackie Mac doesn't have credibility yet Rondo's agent, or should I say- the spokesperson for, Rondo's agent, has the real credibility here because they don't want to be exposed later. Like sports agents carry a bible and drink truth serum every morning.

Think about this from Jackie Mac's perspective;
If you can't get any sources to go on the record, how do you run a story like this without damaging your credibility either with the public or with the person you got this info from?
Either no one's going to believe you or your source is never giving you any information again.

This kind of information comes from a very specific place (if true), and if your source is going to publicly deny/'no comment' to protect their interests, then you won't get any credibility from the audience reading your article.

She didn't write this in an article. She mentioned it as part of a side conversation with some colleagues. And there's a reason she didn't and won't write about this, yet.

Let's say you work for the Celtics. If you had a long time friend that you 100% trusted, and that friend was a journalist, could you imagine saying 'this is some serious stuff but you can't run this one, it's just too sensitive, so please keep it off the production line'.

So instead of writing about it, Jackie Mac mentions it to her colleagues if it comes up but never gives up her source, under any circumstances.
She then asks ESPN to remove the video from Youtube because her source is upset that the information got out and it would jeapordize future inside information that is FAR more valuable to ESPN in the long run. ie getting the real scoop before anyone else if he does actually leave.

Using the earlier example, let's say your friend that you trusted and specifically asked not to run this as a news piece, decided to go against your wishes and ran this Rondo informatio as an actual ESPN front page article. Would you, as the source, give up any further information to your supposedly trusted friend anymore? Even if they've been really good about keeping their mouth shut for the past 10 years, would you give them anything worthwhile?

I wouldn't.


Just off the top of my head, let's look at what stories she 'broke' to Celtics fans, and think about how solid her 'sources' must be to have the scoop on most of these:

*in 2007 she correctly knew/ predicted that the Celtics would potentially offer Big Al for Garnett. She was an honest critic of Paul Pierce at the time and people slammed her for suggesting that the Celtics move Big AL out of town for a 31 year old KG. She actually said that Pierce preferred to build a team around Big Al, but if someone like KG came along, he'd accept that to get a star like that, you must sacrifice a rising star like Al Jefferson.

* She also had the official word on the Kevin Garnett to Boston trade before anyone else. Marc Stein got his information from Jackie Macmullan at the time. Again, I remember people were RIDING her big time after suggesting that the front office was willing to move Big Al for a dirtbag like KG, and how silly she was for making stuff like that up. As if we'd trade all our picks and talent for one aging star.

* She knew about KG's bone spurs before anyone else, and his hip injury.

* She knew KG was coming back to play in 2013-14, but said KG would only play if Pierce was around. Subsequently KG and Pierce were traded to the Nets, but only after KG agreed to waive his no trade clause to go and play with Pierce in Brooklyn.

*Recently she was the first one with information on why the Wolves were not in love with our potential Kevin Love trade package. I mean she gave the reasoning like it was a word for word account from Flip Saunders mouth and it was 100% correct. Even I doubted her at the time thinking she doesn't know what she's talking about because 'all the signs were there!'.

This isn't Chris Broussard we're talking about here. It's Jackie MacMullan.
And when she says something like this, there's a reason why so many Celtics fans take notice, and fiercely debate it over 20 page forum topics on Celticsblog.

[Eja117]

Adorable.

Using your demonstrably impressive powers of deduction, why do you think Rondo would have told the Celtics that he wants out? Why are you sticking so heavily to quotation when it comes to what is an off-the-cuff, not intended for broadcast piece of discussion? Isn't it more likely that the explicit "Rondo wants out of Boston" is exactly the evidence that Jackie's missing/keeping her from writing a piece like this?

To steal an example from the deadspin article, the reason people don't take Broussard seriously is because of tweets like this:
https://twitter.com/Chris_Broussard/status/304044629978935296

Without any actual statements, MacMullan would be, essentially, writing a Broussard tweet. There's a reason she just got honored by the Hall of Fame, and it's largely because she doesn't do that.

Now do you want me to pat you on your head, too?

Is it possible that jackie mac has become a hack and is nearing retirement? Jeter will be in the hall of fame and is a great player, but he can not even hit for doubles anymore. As another poster put it, maybe she has just lost her fastball?

She made a minor mistake. She's fine.

What speed do you think her fastball is at?

I'd say she can still hit 90mph

she is a woman!

Maybe 92

[Eja117]

My suspicion is that Jackie can't get her bosses to sign off on a story about why and whether Rondo's departure is imminent because no one in the Boston front office is willing to go on the record about it beyond a 'no comment.'

That's not how it works.  Since when did her bosses let a "no comment" from a front office prevent them from running a story?

Which is more likely...

1.  Jackie has a piece of super juicy information that literally NO ONE ELSE ON EARTH HAS but they're not running with it.

2.  Jackie doesn't actually have any hard info and was just BS-ing.

Mike

exactly.  You also gotta add that she decided to let these other guys know said super juicy info for no reason whatsoever.....annnddd Rondo did this but he and his agent have decided to lie about it for the time being, knowing they will essentially be exposed later.

I'm going with wishful BSing, exaggerating, and speculating.

She's a human and prone to human mistakes.  So am I. I could be wrong.

Think about this from Jackie Mac's perspective;
If you can't get any sources to go on the record, how do you run a story like this without damaging your credibility either with the public or with the person you got this info from?
Either no one's going to believe you or your source is never giving you any information again.

This kind of information comes from a very specific place (if true), and if your source is going to publicly deny/'no comment' to protect their interests, then you won't get any credibility from the audience reading your article.

Right. Exactly. So when you have info like that you immediately forget you ever heard it and sit on it like a lawyer or an NSA agent. You don't mouth off to your colleagues with who knows how many people in the room, who can immediately start tweeting out "According to 'sources'....." (or God forbid leave the camera running and put it on the internet).

Like I said. She's a human being who is prone to human mistakes and she made one. If Rondo wants out so bad all he has to do is pull a K Love or leave via free agency so obviously there's more at work than just "He's gettin out", so at the very least Jackie is shooting out incomplete info to her buds.

Further you have to also evaluate it in the context of her further comments about Doc Rivers hating Rondo. Where does that come from? Why that? Why not write that?

Made a mistake. Wild pitch. It happens to the best.

[BballTim]

My suspicion is that Jackie can't get her bosses to sign off on a story about why and whether Rondo's departure is imminent because no one in the Boston front office is willing to go on the record about it beyond a 'no comment.'

That's not how it works.  Since when did her bosses let a "no comment" from a front office prevent them from running a story?

Which is more likely...

1.  Jackie has a piece of super juicy information that literally NO ONE ELSE ON EARTH HAS but they're not running with it.

2.  Jackie doesn't actually have any hard info and was just BS-ing.

Mike

exactly.  You also gotta add that she decided to let these other guys know said super juicy info for no reason whatsoever.....annnddd Rondo did this but he and his agent have decided to lie about it for the time being, knowing they will essentially be exposed later.

I'm going with wishful BSing, exaggerating, and speculating.

She's a human and prone to human mistakes.  So am I. I could be wrong.

So she was never told anything, by any source that has inside information regarding the Celtics front office?
So quite simply she's made it up/speculating even with her overall good to very good reputation? Okay.

  So you're saying that you absolutely believe it's true that Rondo's told the team that he wants out of Boston?

[indeedproceed]

I don't think the notion that 'if Rondo wants out all he has to do is pull a K-Love' is necessarily true.

1) Kevin Love had a trade market populated with 3-5 teams that logically had a shot of resigning him because he'd entertain the notion of staying there.

2) Kevin Love just came off a season he played 77 games and averaged 26 and 12.

3) Kevin Love is about to turn 26

4) The offers for Kevin Love we're far from meager. He ended up netting the top pick in the most anticipated draft in years, along with the top pick from last year and Thad Young.

Minnesota had to trade him, or lose him for nothing, like Jackie Mac alledged is the case with Rondo, but Rondo is 27 years old, coming off the worst season of his career, coming off of a major, potentially career altering injury. Rondo's got no serious suitors, because the teams that will give him anything approaching fair value he won't resign with. The teams he'd resign with won't give up anything of value. Rondo needs to play himself into the max contract he wants, and that coincides with the Celtics need for him to play back into the kind of value they'd want back for him.

What's Rondo going to do? Sit out if he's not traded? How is that going to help either party (Rondo or the celtics)? It'd drive his trade value down, and Danny has never been the guy to take back less than he feels is fair value.

Basically right now the Celtics and Rondo still need each other, and stating openly that he wants out (which I don't think is a black or white thing, personally I think he 'wants out' if the Celtics can't surround him with sufficent talent for 2015-2016, which it's looking very much like they probably won't), and Jackie Mac is just extrapolating from that) will do nothing right now but poison his relationships in Boston and ultimately hamper his efforts to leave town, if there really is the inclination to do so.

Id imagine the Celtics made some pretty angry phone calls to Jackie not long after the video showed up. Not necessarily because she's wrong, but because she's screwing up one of their gameplans.

[BballTim]

I don't think the notion that 'if Rondo wants out all he has to do is pull a K-Love' is necessarily true.

1) Kevin Love had a trade market populated with 3-5 teams that logically had a shot of resigning him because he'd entertain the notion of staying there.

2) Kevin Love just came off a season he played 77 games and averaged 26 and 12.

3) Kevin Love is about to turn 26

4) The offers for Kevin Love we're far from meager. He ended up netting the top pick in the most anticipated draft in years, along with the top pick from last year and Thad Young.

Minnesota had to trade him, or lose him for nothing, like Jackie Mac alledged is the case with Rondo, but Rondo is 27 years old, coming off the worst season of his career, coming off of a major, potentially career altering injury. Rondo's got no serious suitors, because the teams that will give him anything approaching fair value he won't resign with. The teams he'd resign with won't give up anything of value. Rondo needs to play himself into the max contract he wants, and that coincides with the Celtics need for him to play back into the kind of value they'd want back for him.

What's Rondo going to do? Sit out if he's not traded? How is that going to help either party (Rondo or the celtics)? It'd drive his trade value down, and Danny has never been the guy to take back less than he feels is fair value.

Basically right now the Celtics and Rondo still need each other, and stating openly that he wants out (which I don't think is a black or white thing, personally I think he 'wants out' if the Celtics can't surround him with sufficent talent for 2015-2016, which it's looking very much like they probably won't), and Jackie Mac is just extrapolating from that) will do nothing right now but poison his relationships in Boston and ultimately hamper his efforts to leave town, if there really is the inclination to do so.

Id imagine the Celtics made some pretty angry phone calls to Jackie not long after the video showed up. Not necessarily because she's wrong, but because she's screwing up one of their gameplans.

   I think it's fairly unlikely that any more than a few GMs would share your opinion of Rondo. Playing below his typical level immediately after returning from an injury was far from unexpected and nothing that happened last season pointed at all to him not continuing to get healthier or play better, or that would at all suggest that his injury was "career altering". But beyond that, you're explaining why it's unlikely that Rondo would say anything like what Jackie claimed he did. I agree that it's unlikely.

[MBunge]

Think about this from Jackie Mac's perspective;
If you can't get any sources to go on the record, how do you run a story like this without damaging your credibility either with the public or with the person you got this info from?
Either no one's going to believe you or your source is never giving you any information again.

This kind of information comes from a very specific place (if true), and if your source is going to publicly deny/'no comment' to protect their interests, then you won't get any credibility from the audience reading your article.

She didn't write this in an article. She mentioned it as part of a side conversation with some colleagues. And there's a reason she didn't and won't write about this, yet.

Let's say you work for the Celtics. If you had a long time friend that you 100% trusted, and that friend was a journalist, could you imagine saying 'this is some serious stuff but you can't run this one, it's just too sensitive, so please keep it off the production line'.

So instead of writing about it, Jackie Mac mentions it to her colleagues if it comes up but never gives up her source, under any circumstances.
She then asks ESPN to remove the video from Youtube because her source is upset that the information got out and it would jeapordize future inside information that is FAR more valuable to ESPN in the long run. ie getting the real scoop before anyone else if he does actually leave.

Using the earlier example, let's say your friend that you trusted and specifically asked not to run this as a news piece, decided to go against your wishes and ran this Rondo informatio as an actual ESPN front page article. Would you, as the source, give up any further information to your supposedly trusted friend anymore? Even if they've been really good about keeping their mouth shut for the past 10 years, would you give them anything worthwhile?

I wouldn't.

So, are you suggesting that JackieMac has never used unnamed sources in her stories before?  In those stories you listed, every single one of them was based on sources that Jackie publicly named?  Who did she quote as her source in those stories?

Mike

[indeedproceed]

I don't think the notion that 'if Rondo wants out all he has to do is pull a K-Love' is necessarily true.

1) Kevin Love had a trade market populated with 3-5 teams that logically had a shot of resigning him because he'd entertain the notion of staying there.

2) Kevin Love just came off a season he played 77 games and averaged 26 and 12.

3) Kevin Love is about to turn 26

4) The offers for Kevin Love we're far from meager. He ended up netting the top pick in the most anticipated draft in years, along with the top pick from last year and Thad Young.

Minnesota had to trade him, or lose him for nothing, like Jackie Mac alledged is the case with Rondo, but Rondo is 27 years old, coming off the worst season of his career, coming off of a major, potentially career altering injury. Rondo's got no serious suitors, because the teams that will give him anything approaching fair value he won't resign with. The teams he'd resign with won't give up anything of value. Rondo needs to play himself into the max contract he wants, and that coincides with the Celtics need for him to play back into the kind of value they'd want back for him.

What's Rondo going to do? Sit out if he's not traded? How is that going to help either party (Rondo or the celtics)? It'd drive his trade value down, and Danny has never been the guy to take back less than he feels is fair value.

Basically right now the Celtics and Rondo still need each other, and stating openly that he wants out (which I don't think is a black or white thing, personally I think he 'wants out' if the Celtics can't surround him with sufficent talent for 2015-2016, which it's looking very much like they probably won't), and Jackie Mac is just extrapolating from that) will do nothing right now but poison his relationships in Boston and ultimately hamper his efforts to leave town, if there really is the inclination to do so.

Id imagine the Celtics made some pretty angry phone calls to Jackie not long after the video showed up. Not necessarily because she's wrong, but because she's screwing up one of their gameplans.

   I think it's fairly unlikely that any more than a few GMs would share your opinion of Rondo. Playing below his typical level immediately after returning from an injury was far from unexpected and nothing that happened last season pointed at all to him not continuing to get healthier or play better, or that would at all suggest that his injury was "career altering". But beyond that, you're explaining why it's unlikely that Rondo would say anything like what Jackie claimed he did. I agree that it's unlikely.

Regarding what other GMs think, do you have any kind of evidence? I'm using the trade offers published by reputable sources. And if GMs thought Rondo could be the guy he was before the injury, why isn't there a bigger trade market?

And also, I refute the claim that I'm representing what Jackie Mac said Rondo has relayed to the front office is anything like what Rondo might have relayed. I'm positing that Rondo is not on board with being part of a rebuild. Jackie Mac said he 'wants out'. There is a lot unsaid there. Would Rondo 'want out' if we suddenly landed a prime talent in the next season like Kevin Love? Of course not. Would Rondo want out if the team next year is going to be the same mediocre stuff we're trotting out this year? Yeah, I think so.

But there is a lot unsaid there, Jackie Mac's statement is predicated on the assumption that Danny Ainge cannot drastically improve the roster in the coming season. That's an inference, but would you say it's a leap?

[BballTim]

I don't think the notion that 'if Rondo wants out all he has to do is pull a K-Love' is necessarily true.

1) Kevin Love had a trade market populated with 3-5 teams that logically had a shot of resigning him because he'd entertain the notion of staying there.

2) Kevin Love just came off a season he played 77 games and averaged 26 and 12.

3) Kevin Love is about to turn 26

4) The offers for Kevin Love we're far from meager. He ended up netting the top pick in the most anticipated draft in years, along with the top pick from last year and Thad Young.

Minnesota had to trade him, or lose him for nothing, like Jackie Mac alledged is the case with Rondo, but Rondo is 27 years old, coming off the worst season of his career, coming off of a major, potentially career altering injury. Rondo's got no serious suitors, because the teams that will give him anything approaching fair value he won't resign with. The teams he'd resign with won't give up anything of value. Rondo needs to play himself into the max contract he wants, and that coincides with the Celtics need for him to play back into the kind of value they'd want back for him.

What's Rondo going to do? Sit out if he's not traded? How is that going to help either party (Rondo or the celtics)? It'd drive his trade value down, and Danny has never been the guy to take back less than he feels is fair value.

Basically right now the Celtics and Rondo still need each other, and stating openly that he wants out (which I don't think is a black or white thing, personally I think he 'wants out' if the Celtics can't surround him with sufficent talent for 2015-2016, which it's looking very much like they probably won't), and Jackie Mac is just extrapolating from that) will do nothing right now but poison his relationships in Boston and ultimately hamper his efforts to leave town, if there really is the inclination to do so.

Id imagine the Celtics made some pretty angry phone calls to Jackie not long after the video showed up. Not necessarily because she's wrong, but because she's screwing up one of their gameplans.

   I think it's fairly unlikely that any more than a few GMs would share your opinion of Rondo. Playing below his typical level immediately after returning from an injury was far from unexpected and nothing that happened last season pointed at all to him not continuing to get healthier or play better, or that would at all suggest that his injury was "career altering". But beyond that, you're explaining why it's unlikely that Rondo would say anything like what Jackie claimed he did. I agree that it's unlikely.

Regarding what other GMs think, do you have any kind of evidence? I'm using the trade offers published by reputable sources. And if GMs thought Rondo could be the guy he was before the injury, why isn't there a bigger trade market?

  For some reason you don't seem to get the fact that players requesting trades spur trade rumors and offers from other teams. Love requested a trade, Rondo hasn't. Why don't you show me some trade offers for Kevin Love (published by reputable sources) that were posted before he made any noise about leaving Minny? I'd guess you won't find more (or probably as many) as you see about Rondo now.

And also, I refute the claim that I'm representing what Jackie Mac said Rondo has relayed to the front office is anything like what Rondo might have relayed. I'm positing that Rondo is not on board with being part of a rebuild. Jackie Mac said he 'wants out'. There is a lot unsaid there. Would Rondo 'want out' if we suddenly landed a prime talent in the next season like Kevin Love? Of course not. Would Rondo want out if the team next year is going to be the same mediocre stuff we're trotting out this year? Yeah, I think so.

But there is a lot unsaid there, Jackie Mac's statement is predicated on the assumption that Danny Ainge cannot drastically improve the roster in the coming season. That's an inference, but would you say it's a leap?

  Sure, there's plenty left unsaid, if by "unsaid" you mean "things you can tack onto Jackie's comment that she didn't say or imply that would change the meaning of her claim". I haven't read every post in this thread but I've seen a fair amount of posts chastising other posters for impugning Jackie's integrity and trying to dismiss her claim because they like Rondo. But from what I've seen, none of the people who are steadfastly defending her honor actually believe what she said.

[indeedproceed]

So you're contending that Rondo has a healthy trade market commiserate with Kevin Love, or another comparable top tier player (I believe you directly compared Rondo's situation to Chris Paul's pre-trade) the only limiting factor is that he hasn't publicly requested a trade?

[BballTim]

So you're contending that Rondo has a healthy trade market commiserate with Kevin Love, or another comparable top tier player (I believe you directly compared Rondo's situation to Chris Paul's pre-trade) the only limiting factor is that he hasn't publicly requested a trade?

  No, I'm saying that there's a large gulf between the trade market for Love or CP and what you think there is for Rondo, and the market for him probably falls somewhere in the middle of that.

[indeedproceed]

So you're contending that Rondo has a healthy trade market commiserate with Kevin Love, or another comparable top tier player (I believe you directly compared Rondo's situation to Chris Paul's pre-trade) the only limiting factor is that he hasn't publicly requested a trade?

  No, I'm saying that there's a large gulf between the trade market for Love or CP and what you think there is for Rondo, and the market for him probably falls somewhere in the middle of that.

That's fairly nebulous, but a defendable position. Id argue a public demand for trade would decrease Rondo's trade value without the backup of his previous elite play, but at that point, it's a hypothetical difference of opinion.

[Celtics18]

I know it was off-the-record, but let's clarify what Jackie Mac in fact said. 

A lot of posters are pointing out that all she said was that "Rondo wants out."  And, that it shouldn't be all that controversial, because, after all, there are plenty of folks who follow the Celtics closely who feel this may be the case. 

But, what she actually said was that "Rondo has told the team he wants out."  To me, there's a significant difference between those two statements.  The latter, the one Jackie actually said on that video tape, is a considerably more specific statement which insinuates some very concrete knowledge by Jackie.  The former statement could much more easily be considered "just her opinion." 

I feel like it would be easier to let her off the hook if she hadn't added in that "has told the team" part.  That's the part that makes her statement more than just speculation, and takes into the realm of a statement that is either true or false. 

[D.o.s.]

My suspicion is that Jackie can't get her bosses to sign off on a story about why and whether Rondo's departure is imminent because no one in the Boston front office is willing to go on the record about it beyond a 'no comment.'

That's not how it works.  Since when did her bosses let a "no comment" from a front office prevent them from running a story?

Which is more likely...

1.  Jackie has a piece of super juicy information that literally NO ONE ELSE ON EARTH HAS but they're not running with it.

2.  Jackie doesn't actually have any hard info and was just BS-ing.

Mike

exactly.  You also gotta add that she decided to let these other guys know said super juicy info for no reason whatsoever.....annnddd Rondo did this but he and his agent have decided to lie about it for the time being, knowing they will essentially be exposed later.

I'm going with wishful BSing, exaggerating, and speculating.

She's a human and prone to human mistakes.  So am I. I could be wrong.

So she was never told anything, by any source that has inside information regarding the Celtics front office?
So quite simply she's made it up/speculating even with her overall good to very good reputation? Okay.

  So you're saying that you absolutely believe it's true that Rondo's told the team that he wants out of Boston?

I'm sure she's heard that from more than one person involved in no small way with the Celtics off the record. My suspicion is that the context is what LooseCannon brought up a while a go, that while Rondo would like to stay in Boston, he'd rather play for a contending team.

But we don't have any context, which is why MacMullan's statement is, for all intents and purposes, exactly the same as saying "Rondo's wants out." Anyone that's ever played around with words on paper for other people to read them knows that there's the truth, and then there's what you can get into a story.

And, again, in big letters:
We have no actual context for this quote so taking it verbatim is, at best, an unbecomingly lazy way to view it.

[LooseCannon]

So you're contending that Rondo has a healthy trade market commiserate with Kevin Love, or another comparable top tier player (I believe you directly compared Rondo's situation to Chris Paul's pre-trade) the only limiting factor is that he hasn't publicly requested a trade?

I just want to make sure that people reading this thread know that publicly requesting a trade is something that will get a player fined by the league.