Rajon Rondo and Rick Carlisle butted heads in a major way during Rajon Rondo’s brief stint with the Dallas Mavericks. Nevertheless, Carlisle had only nice things to say about the 30-year-old point guard to Chicago Bulls head coach Fred Hoiberg this offseason after the Bulls acquired Rondo. From Sam Smith of NBA.com:
“It’s been really good,” Hoiberg said about his relationship with Rondo. “I talked to several coaches that had Rondo, who have been around him, including Rick Carlisle, who I played for in Indiana; he was an assistant under Larry Bird. He actually was the first guy who came up and talked to me after the trade happened and he said it’s going to be great. He said, ‘I think you guys have the perfect personalities for each other.’ From the minute we signed him and he came to Chicago, I knew he had a chance to be successful. He was very bought in to what we were trying to do, he wanted to come in and watch film; we worked a lot with his shot early in the process and he was around our guys and from the very first moment you could tell guys were going to gravitate toward him because of his voice, his veteran presence. Like all players, you learn a lot from the different situations you have been through. I’m sure that’s the case with Rajon.
This perspective from Carlisle is fascinating, as he knows the personalities of both Hoiberg and Rondo very well. Chicago fans will have to hope that Carlisle is right about this one. There’s so much that could go wrong in Chicago in terms of personnel. The last thing that the team needs is point guard-head coach drama/conflict.
