The Legend of Rondo

(9 great stories on Number 9 by ESPN.com)

It's great to see all of the respect and accolades given to Rajon Rondo during this season's NBA Playoffs. It's been a thrill to watch the development of Rajon and the struggles and adversity he faced at Kentucky and through his initial transition into the NBA as a backup point guard. The winningest program in the history of college basketball, for some reason, has not produced many great NBA players. Although Rondo struggled at times at UK under Tubby Smith, we all saw the flashes of greatness in Lexington.

He has now developed into quite possibly the best NBA player UK has ever produced. He's the unquestioned leader on a Championship team that features a lineup of 3 future Hall of Famers. Rondo, who was considered a risky late first round pick for Boston in 2006, was brought in as a backup of Sebastian Telfair. Now, he's the face of the franchise and developing a Hall of Fame resume. Under Calipari, we should all get used to UK point guards dominating in the NBA, but John Wall, Brandon Knight, and Marquis Teague have a long ways to go to accomplish what Rondo already has.

ESPN.com has created a collection of nine articles chronicling the events of Rondo's rise to fame- from his childhood in Louisville, KY, through his high school careers at Eastern High and Oak Hill Academy, to his two years in Lexington at UK under Tubby Smith, all the way through the NBA Draft process and his initial struggles in Boston, and finally to his current status as the unquestioned leader of the Boston Celtics as they try to capture their 2nd NBA World Championship in three years.

I don't post many links on this site, but all nine of these articles are a MUST READ. Read them all (by clicking on the above logo on the top of the page) and watch him lead his Celtics tonight in Game 3 in Boston. The series with L.A. is tied 1 to 1.

What went wrong for Rondo at Kentucky?

As Rajon Rondo looks to lead the Boston Celtics to their 2nd NBA World Championship in three years as he and his Celtics face the Lakers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals tomorrow night, Kentucky fans have to wonder what exactly went wrong for the Cats during his time here. Rondo has emerged as one of the best Point Guards in the NBA and could be named this year's MVP of the Playoffs. Although he still has a lot more to prove over an entire career, he's quickly putting together a resume that could put him in the Hall of Fame someday. If Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen retire anytime in the near future, the keys to the storied franchise could be given to Rondo, and perhaps he could ultimately be judged by how he is able to lead the franchise after that happens. But regardless to what the future holds for Rondo, it's impressive and mindboggling to think that the former Kentucky Point Guard whom led the Cats to a disappointing #8 seed and 2nd round loss to UConn in the 2006 season, his final year at UK, could only be one title short of what Larry Bird accomplished in his entire career in Boston after this season.

A lot of Kentucky fans will point their fingers at Tubby Smith and claim that Smith's offense slowed Rondo down and did not let him take control of the team like he probably should have. I was a huge fan and supporter of Tubby and I agree with those claims, but I think there's more to it than just placing the blame on Tubby for not getting it done in the 2006 season. In 2005, Rondo had an exceptional Freshman season and led the Cats to the Elite 8 and a foul call on Patrick Sparks away from the Final Four. Smith's offense didn't seem to prevent Rondo from having a great season that year. There was a specific event that I believe was a turning point for the bad in the 2006 season and eventually led to the demise of Tubby Smith at Kentucky. Before this event occurred, the Cats were a not so great 10-4. It included embarrassing losses to Indiana and Kansas, but it also included a very sweet win over #4 ranked Louisville in which Lukasz Orbzut somehow played like an All-American that day with the absence of another UK big man.

It was the anticipated return of that big man that I believe was the reason Rondo was not able to take over that team. Yes, the event that I'm referring to is the fax that Tubby discovered in the middle of that season that declared Randolph Morris eligible even after he stayed in the NBA Draft and was undrafted. The day that Tubby found the fax proving that Morris did not hire an agent, many UK fans were jumping for joy and believed that their season was now saved. Morris was now eligible to suit up for the Cats in the SEC opener against Vanderbilt. This was a game that I attended and remember very well all the excitement over the return of Morris.

The Cats lost that game to Vanderbilt and would only finish the remainder of the season at 12-9 with Morris on the team. His post presence caused the team to play a slower brand of basketball which simply didn't work that season. Not all of the blame should be put on Tubby, nor should it be put on Rondo and the perceived attitude problems that some believed he had. I think many of us forget that Randolph Morris did not live up to his expectations when he returned to the team and his presence simply was not a good fit for that team under Rondo. He did not run the floor well and Morris may have actually slowed down Rajon Rondo more than Tubby's offense did. The Cats may have been better off that year if Tubby had never found that fax.

Cal does it again!

A week after making a definitive statement that he will be returning to Kentucky next season and "finishing what he started", and ending all reasonable speculation that he would take a job in the NBA and possibly coach Lebron James next season, Calipari has added another 5-star recruit in Terrence Jones and possibly has surpassed the massive recruiting class that he brought in a year ago in his first few months on the job. Last year's class was looked at as a "once in a generation" recruiting class, and perhaps even "the best ever". In just his 2nd year at Kentucky, Calipari might have done the unthinkable of actually surpassing the recruiting class that included John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe, and Daniel Orton- whom all are expected to be drafted in the 1st round of the upcoming NBA Draft. The really scary part of all of this (for the rest of college basketball) is that next year's class looks to be even better. In the coming days, I'll take a look at the incoming 2010 class as well as the 2011 class and compare them both to last year's class that revitalized the Commonwealth to a 35-3 season in the extraordinary start to the John Calipari era.

Also, I've got to give much deserved "shout outs" to John Wall for his 3.5 Spring GPA and for learning his fate as a Washington Wizard, Rajon Rondo for continuing to lead his Boston Celtics as the MVP of this year's NBA playoffs so far, and the UK baseball team for SWEEPING defending National Champion LSU last weekend in what might have been enough to clinch a spot in the SEC Tournament!

(Photo courtesy of mostlyuclahoops.blogspot.com)