The truth shall set you free, however when it comes to injuries being honest isn’t always the fist elected option. First University of Southern California’s Josh Shaw and now Boston Celtics star Rajon Rondo is the latest to have allegedly lie about a major injury.
Originally reported by Celtics reporter for the Boston Globe Baxter Holmes, Rondo broke his hand in an innocent slip in the shower and will be out for six weeks.
Now it seems Holmes and the Celtics organization both have had the wool pulled over their eyes by Rondo and his representatives. An email sent to Barstool Sports claims Rondo was present at a trampoline park the day of the injury. A broken hand at a trampoline park sounds much more plausible over a slip-and-fall in the shower, however at this point nothing has been substantiated — it’s all hearsay.
DIME Magazine’s Jack Winter has taken the rumor a step further and introduced the idea that Rondo might’ve been involved in an off-the-court altercation resulting in the fracture. The location of Rondo’s injured hand is commonly known as “Boxer’s fracture”, lending some credibility to the idea that Rondo might’ve been involved in a fight, or at least threw a punch somewhere.
"But an even more probable cause of an injury like Rondo’s, in our completely unscientific opinion, is that it was the result of a punch. The Celtics never specified which metacarpal in his left hand that Rondo broke, but if it happened to be the fourth or fifth (connecting the ring or pinky fingers) one, credence is lent to the notion that the fracture occurred after he hit something with a closed fist."
Regardless as to where or how the injury happened, it’s believed that Rondo will miss 6-8 weeks. Most importantly he could be sidelined for the first month of the regular season, much to the dislike of Brad Stevens, Danny Ainge and the remainder of the Celtics organization hoping to achieve a fruitful season despite a rebounding year. Rondo is easily the most important player on the Celtics roster and the highest paid at $12.9 million, last season he averaged 11.1 points and 9.8 assists in a career-low 30 games played.
It’s horrible news for the Celtics who were looking forward to Rondo getting back to full health, playing more than 75 games this year. Rondo hasn’t appeared in more than 55 games since the 2011-12 season, and was sidelined last year due to rehabilitating a torn ACL. On a lighter side of the news, Celtics will get to see a full month of rookie Marcus Smart playing more minutes than he normally would with Rondo starting the regular season at full health. Perhaps the questions of Rondo and Smart’s ability to coexist together in the backcourt will be put to rest as well, if only temporarily.
If any of the aforementioned rumors are true about Rondo’s suspicious injury, there could be more than what’s currently present on the surface regarding the news of his injury. It’s hard to tell what’s fact and fiction at the moment. The truth is a substandard factor, as a greater issue of concern for the Celtics at the moment is Rondo’s injury. However it’s still of importance to know who you’re dealing with, and although the Celtics won’t pursue what’s true with an official probe (if they don’t already know), certainly Celtics fans want to know if the injury was of freak nature or sheer carelessness just days away from training camp.
We’ll all have to stay tuned on this one.