Rajon Rondo’s first love wasn’t basketball. Nope, not at all. The Celtics’ star PG, who is arguably the best floor general in the NBA, grew up idolizing leaders of a different kind: NFL Quarterbacks.
Rondo eventually came to his senses, parlaying his strengths into a stellar NBA career, but it’s fitting that Rondo loved playing QB, as his role is eerily similar on the hardwood.
Via the South China Morning Post:
“And while that last Boston championship team contained some of the best veterans in the game – among them Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett—Rondo has emerged as the franchise’s on-court leader, a natural role for a player who readily admits his initial dreams of sporting glory centred around playing quarterback for the Green Bay Packers. ‘I didn’t watch a lot of NBA games growing up,’ he says. ‘I watched the Green Bay Packers. I always had dreams of being an NFL player. I was a high school quarterback and I really think that has helped me become a leader on the basketball court. They are pretty much the same position. The quarterback is the guy who calls all the plays and gets all the attention and the same with the point guard in basketball. You have to hit the open man.’ Basketball became a natural progression during high school as his skills – and his reputation – developed. ‘I played all three sports growing up – basketball, football and baseball – but I narrowed it down after my first year of high school and realised then I had a chance of making the NBA,’ says Rondo. ‘I was starting to dominate and I don’t want it to sound like I’ve got a big head but the competition around me was easy. At Oak Hill Academy, Josh Smith went straight to the NBA out of high school so I knew then that if I worked on my game I could make the NBA myself.’”
