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The experiment of pairing up Rajon Rondo and DeMarcus Cousins in the Sacramento Kings‘ lineup is now over as last year's results did not prove that it worked.
The team has since moved on and signed Ty Lawson to backup Darren Collison at the point guard spot. Rondo, on the other hand, will bring his talents to the Chicago Bulls and will team-up with Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade.
Rondo's one-year stay in Sacramento was filled with a fair amount of controversy as it was much-publicized that a lot of drama was happening inside their locker room. And now that his stint with the team is history, the four-time All-Star shed light to what really transpired with the Kings last season.
Per Vincent Goodwill of SLAM Magazine:
“I set individual goals that I accomplished last year and I was in Sacramento. If I was on TV and I was in the East, I’m pretty sure leading the League in assists wouldn’t be swept under the rug so much”
“I wouldn’t say it was chaos, but the media portrayed it as chaos. We had ups and downs, we went through certain situations. Publicly talking about firing our coach, didn’t fire our coach. It was a lot of distractions versus what we were able to do as a team.”
It's surprising to hear from him that the distractions the team had was not brought about by players' egos or on and off the court disagreements as many expected, and that it was only blown out of proportion by the media.
Rondo has not had the best of relationships with players and teammates in the past and one has to wonder if he might just be downplaying last year's scenario. But he does not have reason to, which makes his statement come as a surprise yet believable at the same time.
For what it's worth, there are still some positives he can take from his experience in Sacramento as he got to play with a young All-Star center and learned from another coach, too. These will make him an even better player and he'll be share his added knowledge to his new teammates in Chicago.