Rondo remains open to re-signing with Mavericks
A recent spat with head coach Rick Carlisle hasn't changed Rajon Rondo's opinion about his new team.
The Dallas Mavericks' point guard, an impending unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career, said there's no bad blood between the two and that he's interested in re-signing with the team during the offseason.
Rondo, who has severely struggled with the Mavericks following a trade from the Boston Celtics, touched on a number of issues, including free agency, in a conversation with Marc Spears of Yahoo Sports.
When asked if he's open-minded about going back to Dallas, only the second team he's ever played with, Rondo didn't hesitate.
Why would I not be? There are a lot of things that I really love. Even the practices, we listen to music, my type of music. It's the little things. Say we are going to California, we will play Too $hort and West Coast music. If we are going to Houston we might play chop and screw, Bun B or something like that. If we are going to New Orleans we might play Lil Wayne at practice, during shooting 30 minutes before practice. It's a cool way they run it. We get our work in.
It's a player's organization. Players first, from our plane, the way we travel. I don't take that for granted. We eat good. We stay at the best hotels. Of course, it's the NBA. But this organization has the best. They have PlayStation in the lockers. I don't play games, but it's nice to know I got a PlayStation. TVs in your own locker. I heard about it – (Brandon Bass) and J-Terry (Jason Terry) told me – but seeing it and experiencing it.
I love it here. I don't dislike anything. I'm not uncomfortable. Of course, the system is different, but I've been here for two months. It's going to take time. Hopefully, sooner rather than later.
The four-time All-Star went on to say that he's not really looking forward to the free agency process, that he's misunderstood, has a strong working relationship with Carlisle and that it's been tough adjusting to a new team.
As for his teammates?
"Dirk (Nowitzki) is funny as hell," he said. "Monta (Ellis) is like my brother. We're close. In the morning we go to practice as a team. It's a great group of guys.
"There are not too many knuckleheads like me."
Rondo's averaging 9.5 points, 6.1 assists and 4.7 rebounds for the Western Conference's sixth-place Mavericks. He's scuffled with his shot, particularly from the line, where he's shooting 29.6 percent in 29 games with Dallas and 31.7 percent on the season.