After an on-court spat with Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle during the Mavs’ game against the Toronto Raptors on February 24, point guard Rajon Rondo was suspended for one game by the team management.
The 29-year-old former All-Star did not suit up for the game against the Eastern Conference – leading Atlanta Hawks the following night where the Hawks walloped the Mavs 104-87.
The spat between Rondo and Carlisle stemmed from the point guard’s move to ignore a timeout and play call from the bench in the Mavs’ game against the Raptors, with 8:10 remaining in the third quarter, details ESPN.
For Rondo’s disobedience, Carlisle stormed the American Airlines Center court to call a timeout himself and began shouting at Rondo, who responded too, resulting to a profanity-laced shouting match.
Carlisle did not play Rondo for the remaining 20 minutes of the match and turned a nine-point deficit at that time to a seven-point victory for the Mavericks over the Raptors, 99-92.
During the post-game interview with the media, Rick Carlisle said that the spat was just a difference of opinion while for his part, Rondo refused to talk at all with the press, saying instead to discuss the issue with Rick.
Downplaying the spat
While Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has downplayed the issue saying that it has happened before and will most likely happen again, Dirk Nowitzki believes that it is not good for the team.
In a recent interview, Cuban said that he has seen a coach-player argument happened in the last 15 years that he has been a pro-active owner of the Mavericks in more times that he can count.
Mavs center Tyson Chandler share the sentiments of Nowitzki and said that Rondo and Carlisle should patch things up for the good of the team and also to prevent animosity from further escalating between them.
Planning for the future
Rondo was acquired by the Mavericks from the Boston Celtics but he was no longer the explosive player that he was during his early years with the Celtics where they went on to win one championship and two trips to the NBA finals.
Prior to signing with the Mavericks, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers were also eyeing him to become the team’s point guard. The Lakers are said to be still interested in going after him come his free agency.
With the ‘difference in opinion’ with Carlisle, Rondo must be thinking long-term now since he will become a free agent at the end of the current NBA season.
The Mavs will most likely make it to the playoffs and may even give the Golden State Warriors a run for the money for the Western Conference championship. But it is no longer clear if Rondo will be an integral part of that playoff campaign.
The benching of Rondo during the last 20 minutes of the game against the Raptors was not the first time that Carlisle did it to the point guard. The Mavs head coach also sit Rondo out during crunch time of the Mavs home loss to the Chicago Bulls on January 23 without explaining the logic to his decision and just saying that he made it because he’s the coach.