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

[MBunge]

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.

In what world is taking a quote verbatim lazy?  Quotes should ALWAYS be taken verbatim.  That's the whole point of a quote.

A lot a folks here are working very hard at NOT taking Jackie verbatim so they can manufacture some context to make her statements more defensible.

Mike

[Csfan1984]

My 1 cent. Mike you're 100% right about quotes but doesn't mean it ain't wrong which is why many quotes are made after context is introduced. If that makes any sense.

[Eja117]

Interesting that we have to be more careful with Jackie Mac's words than she herself has to be. Otherwise we're being lazy. We're being irresponsible. Not her. Us.

[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?

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.

  That's absurd. Imagine if I said I had it on good authority that the Celts were getting Kevin Love, then started accusing everyone who was giving me a hard time of being lazy because they weren't applying the proper context to my claim. In short, you'd never be able to take anything that's said at face value because it would be lazy to assume that there were no unspoken qualifiers to the statement.

[Eddie20]

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.

Good post, but Rondo is actually turning 29 in February.

I would also add:

*Rondo plays a position that is stockpiled with talent across the league.

*Rondo is a headcase. I'm sure his past behavior and sulky personality gives other team pause on how he'll impact a team.

[D.o.s.]

For what we have to work with, you could, taking that quote verbatim and in a vacuum, infer that Rondo wants to move to Waltham, or Lynn, or Woburn, or Franklin, because Rondo told the Celtics that he wants out of Boston. Feel free to try and prove me wrong.

Context and qualifiers are exactly why we can't say anything about this -- the same way those single tweet 'sources say' are useless, and why people who are good at this job don't use them in any official capacity.

[D.o.s.]

Interesting that we have to be more careful with Jackie Mac's words than she herself has to be. Otherwise we're being lazy. We're being irresponsible. Not her. Us.

Using someone else's statement as a springboard for spewing what is very hard to even describe as 'tangentially related' nonsense is exactly that -- lazy and irresponsible.

[Eja117]

Interesting that we have to be more careful with Jackie Mac's words than she herself has to be. Otherwise we're being lazy. We're being irresponsible. Not her. Us.

Using someone else's statement as a springboard for spewing what is very hard to even describe as 'tangentially related' nonsense is exactly that -- lazy and irresponsible.

Ok. So we can't take her verbatim....and we can't take what she said and go on a tangent either.  Soooo....that leaves us with...read her mind or something I guess.

[Eja117]

For what we have to work with, you could, taking that quote verbatim and in a vacuum, infer that Rondo wants to move to Waltham, or Lynn, or Woburn, or Franklin, because Rondo told the Celtics that he wants out of Boston. Feel free to try and prove me wrong.

Context and qualifiers are exactly why we can't say anything about this -- the same way those single tweet 'sources say' are useless, and why people who are good at this job don't use them in any official capacity.

Oh that's very creative. It was a conversation about moving homes. So that's how that works.

Speaking of proving you wrong do you suppose this house is in Boston Proper? North End?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0UMSgGIqfQ

[D.o.s.]

I know it wasn't in big letters, but come on:

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 wants out"

[D.o.s.]

You guys are adorable though -- keep railing against what is essentially a non-statement.

[cb8883]

With Rondo's attitude it will only hurt this team which is full of youth. It's also going to drive the current coach nuts since he doesn't have an actual star player on this roster. Rondo needs to go ASAP if for nothing else than to avoid the unwanted distraction. There are at least 10 point guards in the league better. If Celtics fans stopped being fan boys for 10 minutes to see this you would realize that I'm correct. The Celtics are going to have to find a replacement and I guess for this season and next Marcus Banks 2.0 will do just fine. But when this team is attempting to contend they'll find out he's just not that good. The future would have been much better set with Exum or Randle.

[D.o.s.]

"I don't think I have an instinct like Kobe, where I just want to kill everybody."

Is LeBron James insinuating that Kobe is perpetually consumed with thoughts of homicide? Surely he shouldn't sit on that!!

And, boom, context:
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/miamiheat/post/_/id/11631/kobe-and-lebron-the-non-rivalry

[Eja117]

I know it wasn't in big letters, but come on:

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 wants out"

I speak 5 languages. I understood Jackie Mac.  It's not anyone's fault you didn't.

In the mean time there are some politicians out back trying to move some field goals with some professional magician shell game guys. Might want to join em now.

[Eja117]

"I don't think I have an instinct like Kobe, where I just want to kill everybody."

Is LeBron James insinuating that Kobe is perpetually consumed with thoughts of homicide? Surely he shouldn't sit on that!!

And, boom, context:
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/miamiheat/post/_/id/11631/kobe-and-lebron-the-non-rivalry

Did he follow it up with "Because he told the Lakers he wanted to kill people and nobody believes me but that's the truth"?

Context man. Big letters and stuff. Gotta listen to what he says and doesn't say.