Former Lakers champ reveals how Bucks' Doc Rivers got him as guest coach: "Put me in a headlock and was like 'Meet me at camp'"
For most of his playing days, Rajon Rondo was seen as a coach on the court. He was an extension of whoever was calling the shots on the bench, an old-school floor general who would pick opposing defenses apart in real time. That's why Doc Rivers wanted him to be a part of his coaching staff.
In a recent appearance on "The Truth Lounge" with Paul Pierce, Rondo told how his former coach put him in a headlock and picked his brain to get him to join him in the Milwaukee Bucks.
"It’s been a joy," Rondo told Pierce. "You know I’ve been away from the game for a minute, as you mentioned. Doc came to my wedding. Put me in a headlock and was like, meet me at camp. How we started, to where we are now. Like I said, he’s always been a guy in my corner.”
Rondo and Rivers go way back to their days when they won an NBA championship with the Boston Celtics. The point guard been away from the game for a couple years now, but admitted that he would love to get into coaching full-time at one point.
Rondo draws high praise from Rivers
Rondo is serving as an assistant right now, but his former coach believes it's just a matter of time before he embraces a bigger role in the coaching staff, knowing that a basketball connoisseur like him could bring to the table.
“He definitely is the smartest player I’ve ever coached,” Rivers said. “It’s been a two-year thing of me trying to get him to do it. You know, he kind of dabbled in it, he kind of looks at it. The one thing I can tell you just through training camp that he spent, he’s hooked now, he loves it,” added Rivers. “It’s in him and once he gets in you, you can’t get out of you. So that was my goal.”
Rivers and the Bucks could definitely use a helping hand right now. The team is 2-7 and the 13th spot in the Eastern Conference as of this writing, far from what was expected of Milwaukee before the start of the season.
It's still early in the year and things can change in the NBA, but given how much the Bucks have struggled to keep up with the rest of the contending teams, some analysts believe this could be the end of the line for Rivers' tenure in Wisconsin.