Rondo was legit good when the Celtics won the championship. He was huge for them.
I've heard he has been padding his stats lately. What does it matter? He's in a contract year on a bad team. Can you blame him? At least it's passing stats and not shooting.
I'm not ashamed to admit that if I played in the NBA I would definitely be concerned about my stats. Stats are what gets you paid. And it could mean the difference between tens of millions of dollars. I like the win first guy just as much as the next guy, but you have to put yourself in their shoes. You can't pass up the chance at mass amounts wealth for you and your family. I'd rather make 300 million over my career and never win a championship, than make 75 million and have a couple rings.
It would be cool that if instead of the players getting paid millions of dollars. They get paid 100' s of thousands, and the rest goes to their city when they win games.