When the Dallas Mavericks traded for four-time NBA All-Star Rajon Rondo back in December, it was was widely praised as a bold—and necessary—move that would help the Mavs reach contender status.
Four months later, it’s clear that deal backfired, and mightly, with Dallas bounced from the first round of the playoffs in five games. Rondo butted heads with head coach Rick Carlisle and, on the court, the pieces never quite fit together. And now after giving up Jae Crowder, Brandon Wright and a first-round pick to get him, Dallas faces the near certainty that Rondo will head to free agency and sign elsewhere.
The failed experiment shouldn’t have come as a surprise, according to NBA veteran Mike James, who made an appearance on this week’s episode of Free Association.
“There are a lot of prima donnas in the NBA. A lot of kids have been given so much leeway throughout their career that when someone says something to them at the wrong time they’ll attack and react the wrong way,” James explains. “The same problems he was having with Rick Carlisle he had with Doc [Rivers]. The difference is that Doc understood him.”
James, who played under Carlisle for two seasons in Dallas, spoke at length about the Rondo situation before taking host Dave Zarum back to Game 6 of the Rockets-Mavericks playoff series in 2005 to share a coach-conflict story of his own featuring current ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy.
