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EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – The day after the fracture on his right hand, Rajon Rondo was at the Los Angeles Lakers' practice center to exchange ideas and give instructions to his teammates.
As usual.
"He was talking, Surprise, surprise," said Luke Walton, Lakers coach, with a smile. "He spoke a lot."
With the hand squeezed into the splint, Rondo led Brandon Ingram and the players in the second unit with sets for their next game at Orlando Magic.
Rondo has again lobbied Walton for it to participate in the team's next three-game trip. He then went to the Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute to have Dr. Steven S. Shin repair the third metacarpal in his right hand.
"Oh yeah," Walton said about Rondo's trip once authorized by the team's doctors. "We want it as much as possible."
Some coaches and executives told ESPN during the summer that Rondo could be a pain for the Lakers, but the playmaker was an on-site coach and mentor of Walton's young core.
Given the freedom of being himself, Rajon Rondo was … Rajon Rondo. The Lakers have seen the basketball IQ acclaimed. They also saw his unpredictability, his fire manifesting in a flurry of blows during his first game in Staples, resulting in a three-game suspension after the NBA had decided that he had spat on Chris Paul.
But its most important – and now essential – impact will be on the development of Baby Lakers. Rondo tried to influence Ball, Ingram, Kyle Kuzma and Josh Hart with examples and instructions. And with the guard of the veteran leader for at least four weeks, this balance is very much in line with the instructions.
"All my life, I've never played with anyone like him or LeBron," Ball said. "It's a novelty for me to try to follow in their footsteps in a certain way, just because you can see them making the most of everyone and that the practices are much better than last year because they always challenge people.
"I mean, he's the best leader I've played – between him and LeBron."
September 20 was supposed to mark one of the last collection matches before the start of the training camp.
But Kuzma remembered that she felt like nowhere else. Although LeBron and Rondo were both at the training center at various times during the summer, they had not shared the field in a pickup party to date.
"It was very intense," Kuzma recalled. "The gym probably had the biggest buzz all summer, in that it has two guys who do not keep quiet on the pitch."
The Lakers guard, Rajon Rondo, was operated on Thursday to repair the fracture with his right hand. He should be away four or five weeks later, the team said.
The Lakers are beginning to find calm in chaos, while the Sixers and Wolves have new concerns. Who is active and who fails his chemistry exams?
When it came to choosing between Golden State and Los Angeles, the former defensive player of the year could only see himself in the Lakers' uniform.
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The voices of Rondo and James echoed throughout the building.
"He's calling over there [plays] like "floppy disk!" ", Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka told Rondo.
The generals on both floors orchestrated pick-and-roll and provided defensive coverage to the back of the staff as the staff observed Rondo's famous competitiveness – he was not backing away from his team. thumb against James.
That was what the president of Lakers basketball operations, Magic Johnson, had hoped for. He wanted to surround his young nucleus with veterinarians who focused on basketball to the point of compelling him. In Rondo, Johnson had added the physical embodiment of the basketball obsession.
"I can not extinguish it," Rondo said, describing the constant chirping and cataloging of thoughts, his mind going through every possession, every decision.
It's an innate quality, but also a trait whose NBA roots date back more than a decade, alongside one of NBA's most cerebral thinkers and lecturers, Kevin Garnett.
"I always play the game back … I speak in my voice memos," Rondo explained. "So, I'll say:" OK, 3:18, first quarter. "I liked this timeless piece," watching a movie. "
Doc Rivers, who has run Rondo for seven seasons with the Boston Celtics, has never seen a player watch more movies than Rondo.
The LA Clippers 'coach and Minnesota Timberwolves coach Tom Thibodeau, Rivers' assistant in Boston, recently laughed at the dinner as they told stories about how the playmaker would be throwing himself on a mistake. tracking during testing.
"I think most players watch a game and think that they are prepared," Rivers said. "Rondo watched 10 games and was as prepared as a coach, that made him different."
Consider the typical postgame routine of Rondo:
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Regardless of the outcome, Rondo will discuss the game after a late dinner.
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He's going to pick Bob Marley and get into a movie shoot by reviewing previous events.
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This diet starts around midnight and can last until 3am.
"I created the mood," Rondo said. "I'm in the mood just where I need to be mentally.
"All I do … cards, Connect Four, drive to school [and knowing the best route]. My life is pretty calculated. I'm going home, I have to sleep [pregame for] 2 ½ hours I eat at certain times. I have to leave the house at times. I shower at certain times before the match.
"It's like having answers to the test – that's how I look at life, how I look at the short." If I'm out and I have the answer to the test, I'm going to do a better job during my test. "
The Lakers have been trying to unlock Ball 's fire for over a year now.
Ball admitted to having sometimes struggled to get engaged – and Rondo was instructed to unveil the potential of the former choice of second place. He was in the ear of Ball to bounce, push the ball in transition and set up smaller defenders.
"Yes, he'll try to take me," Ball said. "Just stuff to try to get me off.He talks a bunch of garbage in practice all the time, which makes me pretty crazy."
"I told him, all my life I [respond to] being yelled at [by the coach] so that's how I answer … if you see things, shout at me. I grant it. It's like that he's trying to help me out. "
On at least three occasions this season, Rondo hosted an impromptu movie session for players.
"He's running pretty much everything," Ball said. "He just calls him randomly before training and he got the clicker and he goes through everything from big guards, I think it helps me the most."
During a session over the summer, Rondo played footage of the March 22 Lakers game against Pelicans from New Orleans last season. Sitting side by side with Johnson, Pelinka and Ball, Rondo – who played against Ball in the March game – showed a sequence showing the Lakers losing what should have been an insurmountable 11-point lead in the fourth quarter.
"The Lakers were there and we were running, but it looked like they were on the ground," Rondo said. "You have to point out some team members who seemed to have body language.
"It's a little s– as a playmaker, you have to make sure everyone understands it."
There is 15.9 seconds remaining on a Saturday night at the San Antonio Spurs and Rondo is about to reach an undisputed layup. In the previous elapsed time, Walton had asked the team to take a quick basket and commit a foul if James did not have an immediate 3-point opportunity.
Instead, Rondo raises the ball to try to catch the Spurs beyond a point 3. The Lakers miss a 3 and Rondo explains that they have no time left.
Even in good conditions, Rondo may have difficulty with his coach if their strategies do not line up. The 13-year-old veterinarian is preparing himself as a coach and has no qualms about challenging a coach.
But Walton gave the guard's guard the freedom to make decisions on the fly because he trusted Rondo's judgment. He arrived at this position after talking to other coaches and assistants who had managed to use the same feeling. Alvin Gentry, who led the guard in New Orleans, told Walton how much the pelican players loved Rondo.
"[Gentry] "I'm absolutely delighted to coach Rondo, and I agree," Walton said. "I have no problem with him as a player, he's been great, the only thing I have to tell him is that sometimes I need him to speak less when we try to teach, but it's never a problem, all I asked him to do, he did. "
During his second season in Boston, a young Rondo went to the Celtics coaching office and pondered game plans with Rivers and his team.
"We would have dragging arguments," Rivers said. "… We had ups and downs, but especially the people who have always loved us, but that does not mean we got along well all the time.
"He wants to be heard and wants to have a voice, maybe I'm lucky, but I've always considered it a positive thing."
The young Lakers noticed Rondo's attention to detail. Hart says the Lakers sometimes come out of the caucus and Rondo identifies the opposing game only by positioning the players on the field.
Ball said that Rondo once remarked that a player had his shoes tied off during a movie shoot amid all the things he had seen on tape. Kuzma says he saw how Rondo is constantly watching his Apple watch during practice.
"I do not know what he's doing with this watch, but it seems to be pretty calculated for everything," Kuzma said.
Rondo, who says he's watching his heart rate and following his watch during practice, admits he's deliberate with everything he's doing on and off the pitch.
"He keeps it super authentic, super real," said Ingram. "He's in voice mode at all times." He always tells me to attack. "He always says:" You want to become an All-Star, is not it? " Then he explains how I can become that, how to get easy baskets, how to become a better defender. "
With Rondo absent for at least a month, James will have to rely on new acquisitions Tyson Chandler to maintain the vocal intensity on the ground. But this will not prevent Rondo from making his thoughts known, even to the audience.
"Rondo is a natural leader," said James. "I think that he has just been brought into this world to lead."
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