Rajon Pierre Rondo

Rajon Pierre Rondo

Rajon Pierre Rondo (born February 22, 1986) is an American professional basketball player who plays point guard for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Rondo attended Eastern High School and Oak Hill Academy for his high-school basketball career, before receiving a scholarship from the University of Kentucky. He played for two years at Kentucky before declaring for the 2006 NBA Draft, represented by agent Bill Duffy.

During the draft, Rondo was selected 21st overall by the Phoenix Suns, and was subsequently traded to the Boston Celtics, where he made his NBA debut as a rookie during the 2006–07 season. He played a supporting role before he established himself as the starting point guard for the Celtics during the 2007–08 season. That season, Rondo earned his first NBA Championship, playing alongside All-Stars Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce. His breakout performance came during the 2009 NBA Playoffs, where he nearly averaged a triple-double, and helped his team take the eventual Eastern-conference champion Orlando Magic a full seven games in the East semi-finals.

Early life
Rondo was born on February 22, 1986 in Louisville, Kentucky to Amber Rondo.[2] He has three siblings: Dymon, William and Anton.[3] He had little contact with his father, who left his family when he was seven years old.[3] To support the family, his mother worked the third shift at Philip Morris USA, a tobacco company.[3] Rondo was first interested in football, before his mother steered him towards basketball because she felt that the sport would be less punishing on his skinny frame.[3] After Rondo became serious about basketball, he attended Louisville's Eastern High School for three years where he played under head coach Doug Bibby. During his junior year at Eastern High School, he averaged 27.9 points, 10.0 rebounds and 7.5 assists which earned him a spot on the All-State honors and was named the 7th Region Player of the Year. He transferred to Virginia's Oak Hill Academy for his senior year where he averaged 21.0 points per game (ppg), 3.0 rebounds per game (rpg) and 12.0 assists per game (apg) and finished the 2003–04 season with a 38–0 record.[4] In his senior year at Oak Hill Academy, Rondo broke Jeff McInnis's single-season school record of 303 assists, while averaging a double-double. There, he included two efforts of 27 assists and a single-game school record of 31, merely four away from the all-time national record.[4] He also had a 55 point game in high-school, second highest all-time in Oak Hill Academy, surpassed only by Calvin Duncan with 61.[5] Rondo was named to the McDonald's All-American Team in 2004 and scored a total of 14 points, 4 assists and 4 rebounds in the all-star game. He also participated in the 2004 Jordan Capital Classic game, logging 12 points, 5 assists and 4 steals. He ended his career as Oak Hill Academy's all-time assists leader in a single season with 494 assists, surpassing Jeff McInnis.

College career

Rondo committed to University of Kentucky over hometown University of Louisville.Rondo, along with All-Americans Joe Crawford and Randolph Morris, gave Kentucky the top-rated recruiting class for 2004 according to Rivals.com.Rondo led Kentucky to several wins including clutch-shot victories against the University of Louisville, South Carolina and Central Florida, but Kentucky failed to advance to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament in either Rondo's freshman or sophomore seasons. He was named to the SEC All-Freshmen Team.He set a Kentucky Wildcats record for most steals in single-season, with a total of 87 steals in his freshman year and made at least one steal in every game. He finished his freshman year at Kentucky averaging 8.1 points, 2.9 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.6 steals.

In his sophomore year he had a career high 12 assists against Ole Miss, despite playing just 23 minutes, and 25 points against Louisville. Rondo also set another Kentucky Wildcats record for most rebounds in a game by a guard, with 19 rebounds in an early season loss to Iowa. He was not known for being a shooter, however, going 18–66 from three with a 57.1% FT average.

He averaged 11.2 points, 6.1 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 2.1 steals per game in his sophomore yearRondo was also named to the 2005 USA Men's Under-21 World Championship Team, which traveled to Argentina for the FIBA World Championships He averaged 11.0 ppg and 4.5 apg in the eight-game tournament, garnering much attention from NBA scouts. The USA U-21 team won a gold medal at the Global Games held in Texas in late July.

NBA career
2006 NBA Draft
Following the 2005–06 NCAA season, Rondo announced he would forgo his final two seasons at Kentucky and enter the NBA draft.Rondo was drafted 21st overall by the Phoenix Suns in the 2006 NBA Draft. Phoenix then traded him to the Boston Celtics along with Brian Grant for the Cleveland Cavaliers' first-round draft pick in the 2007 NBA Draft and cash considerations.

He was the first point guard to be chosen in the draft.[ In another draft-day deal, the Celtics acquired Sebastian Telfair from the Portland Trail Blazers, finally uniting the backcourt Rick Pitino had envisioned at Louisville.[He was signed by the Boston Celtics on July 4, 2006.

Awards and honors
Rondo at the championship parade of the 2008 NBA Champions Boston Celtics.

    1× NBA Champion: 2008
    2× NBA All-Star: 2010, 2011
    3× NBA All-Defensive:

        First Team: 2010, 2011
        Second Team: 2009

    NBA All-Rookie selection:

        Second team: 2007

    NBA regular season leader:

        steals: 2010 (189)
        steals per game: 2010 (2.3)

    Boston Celtics franchise records:

        Most assists in a single season: 794 (2009–10)
        Most steals in a single season: 189 (2009–10)
        Most assists in a playoff game: 20 (2010–11)