Alex Mellion
Journal Staff
When someone is asked to list the greatest pure point guards in NBA history, most of the choices are obvious. Players like Magic Johnson, Isaiah Thomas and John Stockton cemented their marks on the league by looking to create scoring opportunities for their teammates first and themselves second. How long will it be before we add Rajon Rondo to this exclusive list? At the rate his career is progressing, not too much longer.
Remember back two years ago when he averaged a triple double in that classic seven-game playoff series against the Bulls? Through 10 games this season, Rondo has already tallied 151 assists, and has had games with 24, 17 [three times] and 16, respectively.
At his current rate, he will finish the season with 1,238 assists, which is 74 more than the current record for a season, held by John Stockton. Rondo is a “pass first, score second” type of point guard, as evidenced by his season high of 18 points in a game. He is quickly becoming a top-five point guard in the league, and is showing why the “Big 3” should be renamed to the “Big 4”.
Rondo is part of the new generation of point guards in the NBA. These young, explosive guards are capable of taking over the game at any given point, and will do whatever it takes to lead their teams to victory. Young point guards like Russell Westbrook, Deron Williams, Derrick Rose and Chris Paul are able to put their teams on their backs and dominate a game.
The days of the point guard simply laying the ball in the basket seem to be over as well, as evidenced by Derrick Rose’s monster dunk in a game last week [check it out on YouTube, you won’t be disappointed].
Many of the NBAs past stars have a great point guard that played a big role in their success. Where would Karl Malone be without John Stockton? Where would Kareem Abdul-Jabbar be without Magic Johnson? And could you have pictured Celtics’ great Bill Russell not playing alongside Bob Cousy?
Twenty years from now when their careers are long over, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett are going to owe a lot of the success they experienced on the court to Rajon Rondo.
In just his fifth season in the league, Rajon Rondo has shown that he is indeed one of the top point guards in the NBA, which is no easy task given the level of talent that’s currently playing. Celtics fans may be worried that once the “Big 3” retires the team will start performing poorly again, but as long as the team has Rajon, never count them out.
