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Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA
Definitely wasn't public knowledge, 'cause I didn't have the slightest idea about it. (I'm not an NBA superfan my any means but I follow it casually enough to figure I'm a decent threshold for whether it was a very public thing)
But that said -- mostly as a general observation -- is it really that impossible to think an athlete could remain clueless about something these days?
I'm thinking of this in terms of how college athlete X has no idea who a guy from even 20 years ago is, or how somebody like Rondo who appears to be sort of quirky (like the Connect Four thing) might actually be fairly oblivious to any number of things around him.
And nope, haters, this is not any attempt to defend Rondo or get into politically correct speech issues or anything remotely like that. It's entirely about how there do seem to be people who are extremely disconnected from stuff around them & how it might not be inconceivable that he (or any other person in the league) simply didn't have any idea. That it just never came up around them basically, or they weren't paying the slightest bit of attention when it did. I don't really get that level of disconnect but I do see it often enough that it wouldn't be THAT odd.
(Or is there a suggestion that the refs orientation is a topic of conversation in every NBA locker room at some point?)
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Entirely possible, and if I didn't know the names of the player and referee in question I'd assume that case. But complete scumbag Tim Donaghy outed Bill Kennedy in 2010 and
alleged that there was friction between him and Doc Rivers over it. It was a minor thing up here in Boston, and I'm sure Rondo was asked about it.
It's also dangerous to read too much into body language, but I've seen a lot of Rondo over the years, and his actions between the first technical and 2nd technical (from about :22 to :45) struck me as extremely odd even live. Couple that with the what was allegedly said, the extremely clinical way Rondo operates and lack of emotion he shows, to still have a very professional referee doing all he could to de-escalate a situation throw him out...
Quote:
Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA
So this has been out there for like five years now ... and I'm hearing about it for the first time?
Amazing how not making a big deal out of something makes it be not a big deal.
(Yeah, THAT could be construed as social commentary I suppose, sue me)
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Yep. UMass basketball had a player come out before last season, and by a month in we were back to yelling at him for sucking at outside shooting, just like all our other guards. That's how an actual progressive fanbase should react instead of walking on eggshells or worrying that any criticism would make him wilt like a delicate flower.