ATLANTAIt seemed like another one of those 'Gotcha' moments that Rajon Rondo tends to play on the media every now and then.
Upon returning to the Boston Celtics locker room after getting up some shots prior to tonight's game against Atlanta, Rondo cut through the small group of media waiting for Doc Rivers and announced that he would be taking all questions, as Rivers.
Yeah.
Right.
Only thing is, he was serious ... or as serious as Rondo could be in pretending to be Rivers while answering the questions himself, and some about himself.
Confused?
Join the club.
Boston Celtics
In what has been a relatively tense period for the Celtics lately, here's Rondo's light-hearted effort to lighten the mood by spontaneously answering a slew of questions that his coach would have answered - we think.
(FYI: Rivers did address the media about 10 minutes after Rondo's opening act).
Here's a sampling of some of Rondo's answers as the coach known as Doc Rivers.
Q: Disappointed that Josh (Smith) didn't make the all-star team?
RR: "I'm taking all Doc's questions today."
Q: What kind of player do you think Rajon Rondo is?
RR as Doc: "He's been playing alright as of late. But he has to continue to lead this team, find a way to get some wins." (Third person quotes always creep me out for some reason).
Q: In what way?
RR as Doc: "Doing the intangibles. Whatever it takes out there on the floor to get the team to win, he has to sacrifice and do more."
Q: Is he the best point guard you ever coached?
RR as Doc: "I've coached him for seven years now. I would say so."
Q: What sticks out about Rondo?
RR as Doc: "We don't want to make this interview about Rondo. We want to talk about the team, our focus; get off this five-game losing streak. We play a tough game tonight. We're playing a back-to-back game. It's a good Atlanta team that plays well at home. We have to come out and focus and get our wins back."
Q: Isn't he the team leader, the guy that stirs the drink so to speak?
RR as Doc: "Yeah, but you guys never ask me this many questions about him. This is a team game. He's one player. But it's going to take all five out there to get this win tonight."
Q: Who is your starting five tonight?
RR as Doc: "We're going to start with Rondo at the point. Avery Bradley at the two, Paul Pierce ... we might shake it up, but we'll go with Brandon Bass and Kevin Garnett."
Q: You said earlier you might shake things up. What are your ideas if you shake it up?
RR as Doc: "I still like our team. We played well last night. Last night was like a playoff game. Our team has to learn how to value each possession, starting with Rondo. We had a couple free throw line block-outs that we didn't get. We lost the game by three points, so we just have to continue to get better and learn from our mistakes."
Q: Talk about Jason Terry who said a little while ago he's not totally comfortable still yet with this offense. How do you get him there?
RR as Doc: "Get him easy looks. We have to get Jet to the line. He can still draw fouls. He's our jump-shooter, but we gotta get him to the line, get him to the free throw line, get his rhythm, get him a couple easy lay-ups. Playing with Rondo he has to run the floor a little bit better and he's going to continue to shoot the ball for us and knock them down."
RR as Doc: "Thank you guys!"
RR as RR: "You would have had me here for 10 minutes."