Oh the lies Danny Ainges weaves. <rondo>

[bceltic55]

I realize this is a slow summer for C's fans, but must we kill DA on every little thing? We won a championship, remember.

[Gomes3PC]

If a GM is telling the truth to the media, he's not doing his job. His entire job is centered around doing things quietly, because once stuff leaks it rarely turns out well. I am not worried about Rajon. His jumper improved dramatically last year (from horrendous to subpar), and I expect it to move up incrementally again this year.

[3pt %]

maybe Rondo said to Ainge "been shooting 300 jumpers'.

Ainge reports this.

Rondo forgets and then does the yardbarker thing.

?

[LongTimeFan]

I think lieing is way too strong a word. Although it sure looks like a lie.

I'm LDS too and the vision thing is very important to us. I have a vision for myself and family. DA has a vision for himself, his family and more importantly the Celtics. He sees the world through this vision. It's something like draft, develope, and deal and we'll build a dynasty.

So we win the championship and he sees the world through this vision. Largely, the world has bent to DA's vision. So that's great. He just assumed Rondo was doing his 300 a day jumpshot thing, because it fits his predetermined vision. DA really does look at the Celtics through rose colored glasses.

Lieing implies some sort of malicious purpose. I'd say it's more just an incredible dedication to a vision which up until last year, few believed was possible. He's still a true believer in his big picture. That he gets a detail wrong from time to time is really not that important to him.

[pballa]

wow what a catch

[MyInsatiableOne]

What a non-story...

[billfromBoston]

This thread wasn't meant to bash Ainge. I love the guy.

I just caught him lying for absolutely no damn reason. Unless he is trying to enhance Rondo's trade value, I have no earthly idea why he just made up that fairy tale.

...You didn't "catch him lying," you caught an inconsistency in stories between Ainge and Rondo...there is a big difference...the statements don't prove anything either way...

None of the players left Boston until 1 or 2 weeks after game 6 of the finals. When Rondo says he "hasn't touched a ball since we won," he could easily mean since he attended the parade, packed up his stuff and headed home for the off-season.

Now, that doesn't HAVE TO be what he meant, but its perfectly plausible to think Rondo may very well have come into the gym a few times between game 6 and his departure and put up some shots...

Neither Ainge nor Rondo had any reason to "lie" based on the off-hand comments that each made which are driving this topic of discussion...logic tells me that it is probable the scenario I outlined above may be exactly what took place. DA wasn't trying to sell Rondo's work ethic as the principle point of his comment, it was in reference to questions about Posey's departure. It is unlikely he would have randomly chosen Rondo to fabricate a lie around in order to make his point when there are a million things he could have said to underscore his message.

Similarly, Rondo wrote in his blog a very off-hand and vague reference to "not having picked up a ball" since "they won" which doesn't imply anything concrete about it being right after the final buzzer of the final game. He could very well mean he hadn't started training/practicing in earnest since they won.

...boooring....

[GonzoLays]

This thread wasn't meant to bash Ainge. I love the guy.

I just caught him lying for absolutely no damn reason. Unless he is trying to enhance Rondo's trade value, I have no earthly idea why he just made up that fairy tale.

...You didn't "catch him lying," you caught an inconsistency in stories between Ainge and Rondo...there is a big difference...the statements don't prove anything either way...

None of the players left Boston until 1 or 2 weeks after game 6 of the finals. When Rondo says he "hasn't touched a ball since we won," he could easily mean since he attended the parade, packed up his stuff and headed home for the off-season.

Now, that doesn't HAVE TO be what he meant, but its perfectly plausible to think Rondo may very well have come into the gym a few times between game 6 and his departure and put up some shots...

What part of Rondo's statement that "I haven't picked up a basketball since we won" is confusing you?

This is not complicated.

Oh, and picture this: After drinking and partying till 4 in the morning after winning the championship, Rondo was in the gym the next day shooting jumpers. Not just some jumpers, but 300! While the rest of the team was hungover, still partying, Rondo was in the gym.

Come on dude, use some common sense.

[GuyClinch]

Well..it's better then Walter McCarty who went entire summers without picking up a basketball. Talk about waisting talent. Everyone always thinks it's the Rasheed Wallace's of the world that waste talent. But guys like Scalabrine do it too..

Imagine if Scalabrine got in shape and worked on his game? He might be decent..

Pete

[MyInsatiableOne]

Well..it's better then Walter McCarty who went entire summers without picking up a basketball. Talk about waisting talent. Everyone always thinks it's the Rasheed Wallace's of the world that waste talent. But guys like Scalabrine do it too..

Imagine if Scalabrine got in shape and worked on his game? He might be decent..

Pete

Dunno if I'd go *THAT* far...

But as for Walter, it sure showed, didn't it????

[billfromBoston]

This thread wasn't meant to bash Ainge. I love the guy.

I just caught him lying for absolutely no damn reason. Unless he is trying to enhance Rondo's trade value, I have no earthly idea why he just made up that fairy tale.

...You didn't "catch him lying," you caught an inconsistency in stories between Ainge and Rondo...there is a big difference...the statements don't prove anything either way...

None of the players left Boston until 1 or 2 weeks after game 6 of the finals. When Rondo says he "hasn't touched a ball since we won," he could easily mean since he attended the parade, packed up his stuff and headed home for the off-season.

Now, that doesn't HAVE TO be what he meant, but its perfectly plausible to think Rondo may very well have come into the gym a few times between game 6 and his departure and put up some shots...

What part of Rondo's statement that "I haven't picked up a basketball since we won" is confusing you?

This is not complicated.

Oh, and picture this: After drinking and partying till 4 in the morning after winning the championship, Rondo was in the gym the next day shooting jumpers. Not just some jumpers, but 300! While the rest of the team was hungover, still partying, Rondo was in the gym.

Come on dude, use some common sense.

...of course, if you frame it so it HAS to be THE day after the title game, sure....but you are framing this point on everything being literal and without flexibility...

"What part of of Rondo's statement is confusing to you?" What part is so damn obvious to you? I can't speak for you, but me and many other people I know say off-hand things that reference an event that don't necessarily stick to an exact time frame.

He said he hadn't picked up a ball since they won, that could be the minute the buzzer sounded or the time the team all went their separate ways for the summer.

Don't you think its quite possible that a player who had just dedicated the last 6 months to playing basketball may have filled the idle time between the title game and his departure for Louisville by going into Healthpoint a couple of afternoons, working out and getting some shots up? It's not like they're partying 24-7 here...these people are creatures of habit and repetition, I wouldn't be surprised is some idle time was spent doing what's most familiar...

Who cares in the end...nothing changes...team's still good...Danny is still brilliant...Rondo is still awesome...

[cloverleaf]

So if Danny stretches to show Rondo's genuine work ethic, no harm done. My guess is it's as likely that Rondo has understated his work ethic and commitment--that Danny's statement is more precisely accurate than Rondo's. Either way, we're in good shape: the kid's obviously committed to improving himself as a player, and if the championship gave him enough confidence to take a much-needed break, then that's good news on his confidence as well.

Rondo's not a guy I worry about.

[MrLarBrd33]

its interesting, because I really couldn't imagine Rondo shooting 300 jumpers the day after the finals anyways. Why would he do that? Everyone was still partying.

[Al-Haqq]

Lol at Danny Ainge.

When he said 300 jumpers, I was like "so what ........ that takes like 30 minutes".

I use to take 1000 shots 3-4 times a week and that would take 3 1/2 hours. 300 is not very hard to do. lol


I knew there was something strange about that number.

[captain_cheapseats]

I don't think Ainge lied. My best guess is that either (1) Rondo was exagerrating when he said he hadn't lifted a ball all summer, and really meant that he simply hasn't trained very hard, or (2) Rondo told Ainge that he took 300 shots as a joke (since everyone knows the team was almost certainly partying well into the next morning), and Ainge mistakenly thought he was serious. Both of those scenarios strike me as more likely than Ainge lying for no reason whatsoever, but who knows?

And oh, btw, great catch by Gonzo! I agree with the general sentiment that this is a total non-story, but at the same time it's been a dang slow summer, and Gonzo's attention to detail has provided us with something Celtics related capable of being discussed.

[Fencer reregistered]

Presumably most of them dropped by Healthpoint one or more times very soon after the end of the Finals -- get stuff from their lockers, get treatments, etc.

If they spent a few minutes shooting, I wouldn't necessarily expect them to remember that not-very-unique-to-put-it-mildly event later on.

[Fencer reregistered]

And by the way -- if I were a professional athlete who'd played inconsistently but won a championship anyway, and the most inconsistent part of my game was an individual skill, and it could be practiced just by walking a few feet and picking up a ball, I'd be very tempted to practice at least once after things calmed down from the playoffs, even if I basically was planning to take some time off.

[celticfan42487]

If I were an NBA athlete, and I was asked a question about winning a championship and I happened to put up some shots before I cleaned out my locker on the way to getting ready for the parade.. I wouldn't neccessarily remeber that 3 months later. Nor would I speak as if everything I said had to be taken as the literal truth.

Rondo didn't say he didn't do it, nor does it really matter. It's such a small thing that it's easy to be overlooked. Rondo is either going to improve or not, and the only place that is going to show is on the court in game.