Chicago Bulls point guard Rajon Rondo has a well-documented history of having trouble getting along with his coaches. Oftentimes, what creates this tension between Rondo and his coach is Rondo’s stubbornness – particularly when it comes to playcalling. By all accounts, Rondo is a student of the game. He obsessively watches film. He always knows every play in his team’s playbook and, more often than not, knows a majority of plays in the opposing team’s playbook. Rondo is moody and stubborn, but he’s also a basketball genius. Coaching would be a perfect post-retirement job for him, and that’s exactly what he wants to do, he tells K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune:
“I absolutely want to coach,” Rondo said inside a nearly empty Bulls locker room.
Don’t force Rondo out. His goal is to play in the league “six or seven more years.”
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But whenever Rondo places the period on his successful playing career, he’s uber focused on what’s next. The veteran guard even has practiced drawing plays on a greaseboard, which again should surprise no one who has watched Rondo’s preparation.
“I’ve been preparing to coach since I left Boston, really,” Rondo said. “I study all of my coaches. I watch the way they move, the timeouts they call, plays they draw up out of timeouts, how they run practices, speeches they give. I’m trying to follow it all. I see how players gravitate toward different coaches.
“I actually went back (to Louisville) a couple (of) days ago and saw my high school coach (Doug Bibby). He’s one of the best: his delivery, how he encourages players, the confidence he gives them, his attention to detail in timeouts. I’m taking my notes on a lot of different stuff.”
Rondo hopes to become a head coach immediately following his career, but understands that that may not be a possibility:
“That’s the plan. Hopefully I can transition right into it after playing instead of having to sit out or going a different route,” Rondo said. “I know it’s not an easy job. But I respect that this is the highest level of being a coach. If I needed to go an assistant route, I’d do it. But I don’t know if it would need that.”
Many would question Rondo’s reputation as a quiet loner; there’s no doubt that he’s a master of the X’s and O’s, but as a coach, how would he fare when it comes to communicating with, and inspiring his players?
It’s very possible that these concerns – as real as they seem – are unfounded. While Rondo often has difficulty getting along with his coaches, his teammates always seem to love him. Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Monta Ellis, DeMarcus Cousins, the list goes on. Wherever he goes, players praise Rondo as a teammate and leader. The latest example of this, given by Johnson, comes from Bulls power forward Taj Gibson:
“He’s just a great teammate,” Taj Gibson said. “I know he gets a lot of criticism, but he’s always inspiring. He’s in the huddle, and if you’re not feeling right he’s always going to have your back. That’s the type of player I want to play with forever.”
Rondo thinks that he would be adept at communicating with different types of players:
“What I learned from Doc (Rivers) is, you can’t teach everybody the same,” Rondo said of his coach with the Celtics. “Everybody doesn’t learn the same way. You can’t yell at everyone. Everybody’s personality is different. It’s knowing how to manage players. I feel I’d be good at that.”
There are questions – as there are with any untested coach – but all signs point to Rondo being a terrific NBA coach.
