I'm almost certain that he's been heavily medicated since his last year with the Kings/brief stint with Houston. He's always been crazy, but he's just in another realm nowadays. Early 2000's Ron played like a bull in a china shop, and I've read stories detailing his behavior in high school. Coaches and teammates used to commend Ron for his outlandish behavior, and he essentially played the role of the enforcer in hockey. He would verbally and physically challenge opponents, and he was revered in NYC playgrounds for his toughness. In one specific instance, he was playing alongside Elton Brand and against Lamar Odom in a Queens summer league championship game... in the heat of battle, he ran up to LO at halfcourt and screamed at the top of his lungs, "you think you're better than me, LO? You think you're better than me?" The crowd apparently erupted, jumping up and down on the rafters, howling, etc. Artest is one of the hardest dudes in the sport, hands down. Stephen Jackson, Caron Butler, Kenyon Martin, and Ben Wallace are right there with him.
Doesnt change the fact that Rondo is a wanna be tough guy. You think Rondo would push back Artest or Cousins in a street game?
...as a rookie he broke Michael Jordan's ribs in a pickup game because Jordan was trash talking to him. The story I read way back was Jordan kept yapping as he was known to do and Ron took offense and next thing you know Ron had picked up Jordan, slammed him on the court and was on top of him throwing punches before the other players broke it up.
I don't know Rajon Rondo just because he is smaller than those two doesn't mean he would just backdown. Don't know where you're from but smaller guys have beat up a bigger person plenty of times. And again this is pretty much overblown. He pushed Cousins because he went to talk trash to a teammate on the floor they hugged at the end of the game not sure why this is even being overblown as Rondo being a fake tough guy. I remember the story about him breaking MJ ribs. I knew he got physical but didn't hear about the throwing punches thing.
Rondo always acts like he is the toughest guy on the court I would like to see him do that off the court.
Yeah, he was apparently playing pick-up ball at Hoops the Gym in West Side Chicago with MJ, Marcus Fizer, Jamal Crawford, Antoine Walker, and a few others... MJ was making it rain on Artest, and started running his mouth and clowning on Ron's rookie season with the Bulls. Artest waited for him to attack the paint, and literally picked up MJ and body-slammed him to the ground, breaking 2 of his ribs. He also threw a punch at Jordan while he was on the ground, and Jordan threatened to never let the other players back in the private gym if they ever revealed the truth. Funny thing is, Jordan came out the following year in SI and said that Artest was his "favorite Bull," and commended him for his intensity and competitive nature. You can't question Ron's stones... he not only threw down with the GOAT, but he made #23 his b****.
I remember reading a few similar stories and one in particular quoted from an anonymous source even went into details of what Jordan said to tick off Artest. If I recall correctly Jordan put up a few consecutive baskets on Artest and started clowning that everything about Artest was poor, his game his clothes, etc because he had some beat up old clothes or shoes on...can't remember exactly what it was now but he kept pushing Artest with talk of him being some poor kid before Artest had enough. ....for Artest as a rookie to do that shows he had HUGE stones - OR was just plain crazy. Outside of that I haven't heard of too many other actual fight stories except that Artest was known as a physical in your face enforcer in his younger days on the court in a really rough neighborhood and most were too scared to stand up to him. I believe Kenny Smith corroborated that story too from watching Artest/Odom/Brand in their AAU days together.
"im a thug but i make 10 million $ a year" thugs are either in jail or in the streets! there is no such thing as a half way thug!.... players are in the nba because they've made THE RIGHT choices in there life! after they retire then thats another story!
This is kind of off-topic, but it's a question I have to ask.. Has a PG ever shot FTs as badly as Rondo? He's shooting At 51% right now and was at 49% last week.
..no clue but chances are no - anyone shooting that bad would have to bring a couple of other exceptional skills to the table to be a starter.
End of the day give me a player like Rondo on the Rockets. In the playoffs 2 years ago Scola gets punished by Fisher and nobody on the Rockets ran to his defense. Nobody!
It's called smart basketball. They realized Fisher was clearly at fault, so they allowed the referees to handle the situation. You're clearly missing the point -- it's easy for "fake tough guys" to yap off in the NBA, because they realize that it's highly unlikely that a petty argument escalates to violence with referees, coaches, and other players around. If that happens on the playground, Artest, Landry, and Wafer are cracking Fisher in the dome.
The Rondo/Artest thing happened in the playoffs. I'm not saying go crack Fisher in the dome but at least go defend your teammate. I get the point you guys are making. None of you have any proof that Rajon Rondo is a fake tough guy off the court though. Unless yall have stories I have not heard about him.
I like Rondo but he still has a lot to learn. Those clips all involve the same theme: Rondo getting involved in unnecessary pushing/shoving. In this day-and-age, the idea of daring the league front office to dish out suspensions isn't exactly a smart thing to do.
Yeah, you don't see people the likes of Charles Oakley, Anthony Mason, Bill Laimbeer, or Rodman any more. Only Artest comes close and he seems to have gotten himself under control.
