In the immediate aftermath of Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade calling out their young teammates following Wednesday's blown game against Atlanta, the most vocal response came from Jerian Grant on Twitter. But Rajon Rondo's grating Instagram post on Thursday made Grant's tweets look like high praise. For those who can't be bothered to follow the link, Rondo posted a picture of himself with Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett during his Boston days. Here's the full message that accompanied it in all its glory:
My vets would never go to the media. They would come to the team. My vets didn't pick and choose when they wanted to bring it. They brought it every time they stepped in the gym whether it was practice or a game. They didn't take days off. My vets didn't care about their numbers. My vets played for the team. When we lost, they wouldn't blame us. They took responsibility and got in the gym. They showed the young guys what it meant to work. Even in Boston when we had the best record in the league, if we lost a game, you could hear a pin drop on the bus. They showed us the seriousness of the game. My vets didn't have an influence on the coaching staff. They couldn't change the plan because it didn't work for them. I played under one of the greatest coaches, and he held everyone accountable. It takes 1-15 to win. When you isolate everyone, you can't win consistently. I may be a lot of things, but I'm not a bad teammate. My goal is to pass what I learned along. The young guys work. They show up. They don't deserve blame. If anything is questionable, it's the leadership.
Well. That sure resolved everything going on with this team. In fact, Bulls management appreciated it so much, Rondo's contract might be bought out. It's as if to say "We love how you spoke your mind, so why don't you do it someplace besides here?"
The scary thing about Rondo's post is he's not completely wrong. Go back to any non-game story involving Wade or Butler this season and you'll find things that match what Rondo is saying. So it's not a huge shock that he doesn't like how they've conducted themselves as team leaders or simply as players either. Their postgame comments were clearly the last straw for him, but even with all that time between then and when he made the post, he still felt strongly enough that he had to tell the world what he perceived to be the wrong way to guide a team.
The biggest irony of this whole thing is that it was Rondo who coined the term "The Three Alphas" and in less than 24 hours, they all added fuel to the fire that is this dysfunctional season. Worse yet, it's turned into two alphas against one and unsurprisingly, the player by himself has by far contributed the least this year. What is anyone hoping to gain from all this? Unless some magic potion that brings unity is somewhere in the locker room, it's hard to imagine much.
But perhaps some good will come of this. Maybe this is what Gar Forman and John Paxson needed to finally stop turning the other cheek and do something about this mess they created. Years from now, we might look back on these past couple days as the moment when the Bulls finally decided to get serious about building the franchise's next great era. And to think, all it might have taken was an online rant from a player who many felt was a poor teammate and bad for Fred Hoiberg's system to begin with.
All we know for sure is we're all sick and tired of season after season turning into a soap opera for one reason or another. Two years ago, it was GarPax against Tom Thibodeau. Last year, Butler seized leadership from Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, much to the chagrin of the now-Knicks. The latest one is Rondo vs. Butler and Wade vs. everybody.
Why do we as fans have to put up with this? Even the Tim Floyd era didn't see so much drama for so long. If Michael Reinsdorf doesn't realize now is the time to get his father Jerry to sign off on something new, this organization is a lost cause. This all could have been avoided if they took the proper steps to assemble a winning, united basketball team, but here we are.
The longer the higher-ups remain silent about this, the more fans are going to tune out. It's a shame to see the same franchise Michael Jordan became famous with reduced to something no one should want to be a part of. A real culture change is needed. No one should care about how it happens as long as there's a light at the end of this God-forsaken tunnel, which there currently is not.
Maybe Jerry will see how happy SoxFest attendees are this weekend to know his other team is finally taking proper steps to get back to winning. If that's the epiphany he needs to realize Bulls fans would be just as happy to endure lean years for a better future, so be it. Maybe it starts with dumping Rondo and admitting he never should have been signed to begin with. Let's see somebody take to social media about that.
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