Rajon Rondo Wants to Be a Coach When He Retires, Naturally

Rajon Rondo wants to be a coach when he's done playing, which sounds like a surprising development. While he has earned a reputation for dogged intensity, a high basketball IQ, and a deep understanding of the NBA, Rondo is also known as a nuisance and a disruptor. His coaches have constantly quarreled with him, from high school onward.

He was basically shooed out the door in Dallas after half a season even though the Mavericks traded a first-round pick for him. The Bulls have already benched him. Doc Rivers reportedly tried to fight him in Boston.

But Rondo has said since high school he's wanted to be a coach. Lately, he's taken to drawing plays on a grease board.

"I've been preparing to coach since I left Boston, really," Rondo told the Chicago Tribune. "I study all of my coaches. I watch the way they move, the timeouts they call, plays they draw up out of timeouts, how they run practices, speeches they give. I'm trying to follow it all. I see how players gravitate toward different coaches."

Rondo wants to coach right after his career is over, but he still thinks he can play for six or seven more years. He'd likely be an assistant when he finally does call it quits, but he doesn't seem to think he'd need to do that. Jason Kidd and Derek Fisher went straight from the NBA court to the sidelines, so it's not that crazy of a notion.

The one thing Rondo seems to have learned is that you can't coach everyone the same way. But the bigger and—from a purely rubbernecking perspective—more intriguing question is whether he can handle a player who can be a dick like him.

"Everybody's personality is different," he said. "It's knowing how to manage players. I feel I'd be good at that."

[Chicago Tribune]