National Basketball Association

Rondo expecting warm welcome in return to Boston

Published Dec. 31, 2014 9:25 p.m. ET

foxsports

DALLAS -- Rajon Rondo has been a Dallas Maverick for nearly two weeks now. And as he and his new teammates continue to get acclimated to one another, Rondo will experience a first on Friday night when the Mavs face the Boston Celtics at TD Garden, his first appearance in Beantown since the December 18 trade which sent him to Big D.

After practice on Wednesday, Rondo admitted returning to a place he spent the majority of his professional career will be an emotional experience. Not only is he looking forward to seeing those in the Boston organization who he still knows whether they be players or front office types, there is another group he is expecting an equally warm welcome from.

"I believe I'm going to get a great reception," Rondo said. "I gave it my all every time I went out on the floor as a Celtic. I played for the team, obviously. It was a great opportunity to play for one of the best organizations in sports history."

Friday will of course be his first time to experience facing a former team at the NBA level, but considering all the blood, sweat and tears he offered up on a nightly basis during his nine-year run with the Celtics, he knows a hero's welcome will be in store for him from a fan base who absolutely adored him during his time in Beantown.

"They are one of if not the best fans in sports, period, that I've played in (front of) the last nine years. It's been an honor to be a Celtic," Rondo said. "I'm very grateful for the opportunity that (CEO) Wyc (Grousbeck) and Danny (Ainge) gave me to become a Celtic those nine years."

Mavs head coach Rick Carlisle knows a thing or two about what it's like to be a Celtic since he played there between 1984 and 1987 and was part of Boston's NBA championship team in 1986.

And even though he has only known Rondo for just under two weeks, knowing the passionate Boston as well as he does from personal experience, he too expects his starting point guard to be well received on Friday.

"Boston is one of the great sports cities in the world and the reason people in Boston identify with him is because of his uncompromising competitiveness and the fact that he's an absolute original. He's just a one-of-a-kind player," Carlisle said. "One of the things that really defines his game is his resourcefulness in finding ways to help the team win."

This has already been a big week for Rondo. On Sunday, former Boston teammate and good friend Kendrick Perkins was in town with the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Mavs scored a five-point win over OKC.

On Tuesday night, the Mavs pretty much ran the Washington Wizards out of American Airlines Center.

Now Dallas gets set for a three-game road trip, which starts on Friday with Rondo's return to Boston and after a Saturday trip to meet LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, the trip concludes Monday with a visit to the Barclays Center to face the Brooklyn Nets, a game where Rondo will see another familiar face in fellow former Celtic Kevin Garnett.

"It's like a family reunion the next couple weeks being traded from the Celtics to the Mavs," Rondo said. "Play [Perkins] four times a year now and see [Garnett] in a couple days as well and obviously see my old teammates in Boston. So hopefully I won't be too emotional, try not to cry a little bit, but I'm excited to go back. Those fans are amazing there."

Carlisle is expecting this to be an emotional experience for his new floor general and that's not a bad thing.

"It'll be emotional. Look, I know how they feel about him. He was there when they were really bad. He was in the leadership position on a championship team for a lot of other long playoff runs," Carlisle said. "Then more recently he was with them through a rebuild, and his approach hasn't changed. He remains as competitive as was on Day 1 and as competitive as he was in 2008 playing in the Finals. People respect that. They respect that consistency and they respect that uncompromising will to be great, to be a winner."

And part of the greatness about Rondo, other than his incredible vision, playmaking ability and general gamesmanship on the hardwood is the fact that he hasn't and never will lose sight of the fact that it was the Celtics who gave him a shot in the Association.

Sure, maybe it was the Phoenix Suns who originally drafted him 21st overall back in 2006 after a standout career at Kentucky, but the Celtics swung a draft-day trade that netted them Rondo and gave them a key building block for a team that ended up winning an NBA title just two years later.

Rondo quickly became a huge fan favorite and as the saying goes, the rest was history.

"That's where I started," Rondo said. "That's where I got molded. That's where everything happened for me. The best years are still ahead for me, but I was an All-Star four times, won a championship in Boston. I can't thank the fans enough."

Specifically, he thanks the die-hard Celtics fans for being exactly that, true to their team even in the bad times, something which Rondo was part of early in his NBA career.

"Even when we were losing 18 in a row the first year, the fans still showed a lot of support. They came to every game," he said. "When I was out on the streets, they didn't kill me or heckle me. It was always supportive. They're true fans. They're not fair-weather fans. They ride it out and be a Celtic for life."

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