Rajon Rondo is out indefinitely with a fractured right thumb he suffered in the Bulls’ Game 2 victory over Eastern Conference #1 seed Boston Celtics. Before dropping Game 3, the Bulls looked poised to pull off a rare 1-8 upset — largely due to Rondo’s efforts. The mercurial point guard was averaging 11 ppg, 8.5 rebounds and ten assists against his old team. Now yet another attempt for Rondo to rejoin the NBA elite comes to an unfortunate end.
Rondo was a wunderkind with the Celtics when they won the 2008 NBA Championship, making himself as valuable (or more) as Boston’s vaunted Big Three of Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett. But despite Rondo’s great gifts, the immensely talented guard has never managed to endear himself anywhere — getting shipped out of Boston, then ignominiously dismissed from Dallas, followed by a good-but-not-enough-to-keep him year in Sacramento that ended with Rondo trying again in Chicago this year. Dwyane Wade, Rondo and Jimmy Butler’s Bulls struggled but managed to sneak into the playoffs. They were off to a dynamic start.
