Winning over Boston sports fans isn’t hard. You don’t have to be the most talented player; you don’t have to win awards; hell, you don’t even need to win a bunch of championships. Just care. All you have to do is care about the team as much as we do. If you genuinely give a crap, the fans will love you forever, but if you try and coast or don’t care about winning, the fans will eat you alive. That’s all we ask for: that you care. That’s all we want.
This opening paragraph could pertain to many players. Red Sox fans hated Josh Beckett1, not because he was playing terrible, but because he didn’t care that he was doing terrible. He just didn’t care. He wasn’t trying to get back to the top of his game. He was just coasting through the year, looking for any excuse to go on the DL so he could take a little vacation. The dude is a hypochondriac, and Red Sox fans couldn’t be happier that he is gone.
Celtics fans hate Ray Allen now. It doesn’t matter that he won a championship with Boston in 2008. He felt disrespected and didn’t want to be a decoy on the Celtics’ offense. So, he goes to Miami where all he will do is stand outside the 3-point line and be a decoy. He’s a whinny hypocrite. We hate him now, hate him for caring more about warm weather and being buddies with LeBron than wanting to stay and slay the evil dragon that is the Miami Heat. No, instead he goes and stands behind the dragon as the Celtics continue to fight. We hate him for that; hate him for not caring about the Celtics as much as we do.
Bruins fans’ opinion of Stanley Cup hero Tim Thomas changed faster than Obama’s hair color when Thomas refused to visit the White House with the team to celebrate their championship win. If Joey Porter can visit George W. Bush, then there is no reason Tim Thomas can’t visit Barack Obama. He was selfish and put himself before the team. We understood his reasons, but loathed him for putting politics in front of his team’s accomplishments2. Now, Thomas is going to sit out next season to focus on family, friends, and faith. Again, we understand the reasons, but we loathe him for them. We see him as selfish and putting himself before the team. It’s amazing how quick the opinion of a player changes the minute they stop caring. Boston fans can tell. They are some of the smartest fans in sports3, and they have a sixth sense for feeling out the ones who don’t care.
Caring and giving a crap can also help. Patriots’ fans forgive Tom Brady for lots of things. The long hair, the Uggs, the Yankee hats, the modeling, the embarrassing dancing on YouTube, the house in Los Angeles, the list goes on and on, but we forgive everything based on the simple fact that he cares. You can see it. He celebrates like crazy after every touchdown, just like us. He gets pissed when he throws an interception, just like us. He’s happy when the Patriots win, just like us, and he is furious and heartbroken when they lose, just like us. He cares about the team just as much, if not more, than we do. That’s why no matter how many more Super Bowls he wins or loses, or how many more goats he models with, or how many times he decides to perm his hair, we will always love Tom Brady for the simple fact that he cares.
Maybe the most polarizing player when it comes to caring is one Rajon Rondo. I love Rondo. Yes, he coasts through the second half of back-to-backs. Yes, he gets bored and doesn’t try as hard on Tuesdays nights in Milwaukee. Yes, he can be frustratingly average one night after putting up a triple-double just the night before. Rondo has weaknesses to his game just like every player, but caring is not one of them. Personal opinion: Besides Kevin Garnett4, no one cares about their team winning or losing more than Rondo. This isn’t just winning or losing basketball games. This is winning practices or his own personal goals, like guarding LeBron. He hates when the Celtics lose as much as I do, and that’s why Rondo is my favorite basketball player. If it’s a must-win game, I know three things: Rondo is going to give his best effort, Rondo is going to put up a triple-double, and Rondo wants the Celtics to win as much as I do. Under the brightest lights, you can count on Rondo. I don’t know if the “clutch” gene really exists, but if it does, Rondo has it. I know I can count on him when the stakes are at the highest. There’s something to be said for that.
The 2012 NBA playoffs solidified Rondo as my favorite player for those three reasons and three others: he hates the other team as much as I do5, he comes to compete every game, and he hated losing to the Heat as much as I did6. Just watching Rondo play, the way he carries himself, you feel his hatred for the other team. He trash talks, he challenges, he yells, he pushes, it’s just awesome. In the NBA today, where AAU has ruined rivalries and everybody wants to play “Avengers” and just play with each other and hug it out, it’s refreshing to see a player not care if he’s liked: by his team or the other. The lasting images of the 2012 playoffs for me didn’t even happen during games. All three happened after games. The first two were Kevin Durant and Ray Allen hugging and congratulating LeBron after he had just ripped their teams’ hearts out. The third was Rajon Rondo and Kevin Garnett walking off the floor before the final buzzer had gone off. This is why I love Rondo, and Garnett for that matter. Rondo would never be caught dead hugging an opposing player after a game with maybe the exception of Kendrick Perkins. He gets it. You just played 48 minutes of hard fought basketball, you trash-talked, pushed, shoved, yelled, and they beat you. So, why would you go over and hug them!? I think Rondo is the perfect blend of old school and new school basketball. He brings the playground and And-1 tour style to his game, but at the same time brings the old school competitiveness of the players who used to try and break noses and teeth.
I love Rondo, I can’t say that enough. I fully expect, like every other NBA analyst, the Rondo is going to have a career year. He is still pissed from the playoffs, pissed about Ray Allen, and pissed about the Olympics. Rondo is one of the ten best players in the world, the best player on a Eastern-Conference finalist, and he isn’t even thought of. Not once was he considered for Team USA. He probably wouldn’t have wanted to be on the Olympic team anyway, have to put up with LeBron-Durant-Carmelo love fest, but you know he is pissed that he didn’t even get invited to work-outs or practices. He is primed to have a huge “Eff-You” season, and he understands that the Celtics are now “his team.” He knows he has to score more and lead. No more 5-11-6 games. He is going to be having a lot more 17-13-8 games this year. I couldn’t be more excited to season Rondo make a leap this year.
Rondo will never be the most skilled basketball player in the NBA. He has been a part of a generation with some of the most talented players the league has ever seen, LeBron and Durant are just two that will always have more pure basketball skills. Rondo might never make it into their level, but he has a level all his own, the 2012 playoffs proved that. He played with such animosity for the other team and officials that it’s a surprise he was only ejected from one game. He rose his game to another level when the games mattered most, and he has done that his whole career, something that both LeBron and Durant can’t say. Dating back to 2009, Rondo’s third season, he was recordeing triple-doubles in the playoffs with Garnett out for the year with a knee injury, and he hasn’t slowed down yet. The most important part of Rondo’s game, though, isn’t his skills or talent. After that Celtics-Heat series, he wouldn’t be caught dead hugging it out with the players that just beat him. Rondo might be a temperamental SOB7, but he’s our temperamental SOB, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. Nobody competes harder, nobody takes each loss more personal, and nobody cares more, and at the end of the day: that’s all we ask for, and that’s all we want.
- The two things that made me most mad about Josh Beckett were that I knew he could do better and he never has once apologized or took responsibility for his mistakes (the end of the 2011 season and the 2012 season). I’m like a disappointed parent in this sense.
- The thing that made me most mad was that he was the only American-born player on the ENTIRE team. You are the only member on that team that is from the United States, the event is being held in the capitol of YOUR home country, hosted by, like him or not, YOUR President, and you just blow it off because you don’t agree with the political views of the President. You had a responsibility to your team and country to be there and you blew it off. Having said that, it was his choice and I would defend to the death his right to make that choice. I just don’t agree with it.
- I don’t care what Jonathan Papelbon says. Besides, I would never trust the judgment of a man that refers to himself in third-person as Cinco Ocho.
- I know some will say that Kobe belongs in this category, but it has gotten to the point where all he cares about is his legacy. He only wants to win a title so he will be considered in the same breath as Jordan. All he cares about is padding his résumé, and he will do it anyway he can: points, rings, All-Star teams, it doesn’t matter. That’s why he will probably play until he is 45 and can’t walk anymore. He wants to have the greatest career ever, and all he cares about is getting it. So, yes, Kobe cares more than most, just not about his team winning.
- He has that cornered animal mentality where he thinks everyone is out to get him and he has to fight his way out. That’s why he blew up at Marc Davis in Game 1 @ Atlanta. He felt Davis was making him lose, and he let him know about it. Plus, it was a terrible call. Uh oh, my homerism is showing.
- I cannot write enough words to describe how much I loved the fact that Rondo walked off before the end of Game 7. Sportsmanship be damned, I was pissed they lost, and Rondo showed me he was too. I would have done the same thing.
- This is a compliment. I love the fact that Rondo is becoming pissed at the world. Makes him play better. One last thing I love about Rondo before I make you nauseas (if I haven’t already). I love how Rondo’s post-game press conferences are becoming more and more Belichickian every day. I love it: the indifferent responses, don’t-want-to-be-there attitude, blunt answers, not caring who he pisses off. Can’t get enough! I can’t wait until Rondo is a grumpy, ornery old man giving a more pissed off Hall of Fame speech than Michal Jordan.
