Recently Rajon Rondo sponsored his annual Red Bull: King of the Rock one-on-one tournament, culminating with a finals matchup held on Alcatraz Island itself. Richard S. Chang of Red Bull interviewed Rondo after the tournament and touched on a few things other than the lockout. Among the items discussed were his elbow injury, playing football as a kid, playing in the NBA playoffs and rating how crazy some of the crowds can be at different NBA arenas. Here are some of the tidbits:
On the elbow injury against the Miami Heat: “Pop! It was loud,” he said a couple of weeks ago during a photo shoot in Boston. “I was in shock, more than anything. It wasn’t a lot of pain, it was shock.”
On keeping in shape during the off-season/lockout: “I don’t have to watch what I eat, really,” he said. “I’m so young. I can bounce back and get into shape so quickly.”
On the Red Bull tournament finals on Alcatraz: “You have to be there to experience it,” he said of the event. “But a little detail: it’s cold. Obviously it gets dark out there, and the fog is going, but it’s fun. There’s a lot of hot chocolate going around.”
On growing up in Kentucky, playing football: “People said they thought I was better in football than in basketball, but who knows?” he said. “I’ll never know.”
On the intensity of the NBA Playoffs: “Mentally, you’ve got to be tougher,” he said about playing in the postseason. “There’s a little bit of adrenaline, but you’ve got to take care of your body. It’s time to step up.”
“There were some intense games, and it could have gone a different way if our guys didn’t make shots for us,” he says. “It was a fun series, though, being that the Knicks hadn’t made the playoffs in so long — and the Celtics going against the Knicks is a good rivalry.”
On how some of the crowds around the NBA rate:
Madison Square Garden however, does not harbor the noisiest fans according to Rondo, an honor that he says goes to the Golden State Warriors. “They got a pretty loud crowd,” he pointed out.
The most obnoxious crowd? “I’d say Chicago. Ever since a couple years back in the playoffs, me and Kirk [Hinrich] got into it and they’ve been booing me and heckling me ever since.”
As for Rondo’s home court, the TD Banknorth Garden? “It’s very intense, even on Sunday games,” he said. “Sunday afternoon, it’s still alive in the Garden.”
According to the piece, Rondo is also planning on returning to the University of Kentucky to get his degree in social work. I have to disagree with Rondo to a certain extent about the Sunday home games at the Garden. I've been to pretty much all of them since he's been in Boston and those Sunday games can't be quite serene at times, but overall the Garden usually brings it. I love how he views Chicago as the most obnoxious and there is ZERO mention of Los Angeles. I wonder how Rondo would have felt about Philly had he played on those teams in the 80's?
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