Rondo interview on WEEI

Excerpts courtesy of Hoopsworld:


Celtic Selfishness: We've all heard of Celtic Pride, which was restored two years ago when the franchise won its first championship in over 20 years. Now with the team struggling though and failing to live up to expectations going into the postseason they're may be a little bit of Celtic selfishness holding them back. Rajon Rondo explained during an interview with Dale and Holley on WEEI in Boston while also touching on a couple other different subjects:


On his comments about Celtics playing with agendas:
"Everyone wants to do it for themselves, but we need to do it for the team. At times, including myself, guys wanted to do it for the team themselves. Everyone wanted to do it ourselves. To sort of explain it, say we are down seven, I may try to take a guy one-on-one myself."

On thoughts about losing to the New Jersey Nets:
"It can't get any lower than this at this point. We lost to the best team in the league the night before and to follow it up, we lost to the worst team in the league. We gave the team confidence. They were more aggressive. We let our guard down. It was hard to turn those guys off once they got going. We can only get better and go up from there. We just try to get over it as quick as possible."

On trash talking:
"I try to just do my job. I always try to have an even keel on the court – never too high, never too low. At times you get into it with guys because of the competition level. I try to be the same for my teammates night in and night out. I don't think I play as well when I go get frustrated and get into it with someone else. Because I am the point guard, I can't go after a guy trying to score buckets on him. You still need to lead the team and lead the show and get guys involved."

On what he and the team do to keep him fresh:
"I am able to adjust now and absorb those hits that I am taking instead of the past couple years when I get hit and I am all over the floor. This year, that is a key for me to have longevity in my career, not to hit the floor as much. As a young player, you just want to play as much as possible to help the team. But, the last couple of games playing 45-46+ minutes, I haven't had my legs in the fourth quarter. I haven't been shooting well in the fourth because of fatigue. My floaters are a little short. My jumpshot's short. In order to have that presence in the fourth quarter, I need to have my legs… That (bringing in Nate Robinson) is definitely going to knock down minutes of mine, which is good for the team and will definitely help us in the playoffs. If we go deep in the playoffs, I don't have to play 40-45 minutes. A guy like Nate can definitely come in and pick up the tempo."

And on what stats he thinks are important for him:
"Assist-turnover ratio is the most important stat for me. Taking care of the ball and not giving up the ball. It's always been like that. That's the stat I always looked at that in my career and college and high school as well."



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