Here’s a sampling of what the C’s point guard, his teammates, and opponents had to say about the return from a gruesome left elbow dislocation during the postgame:
Doc Rivers on Rondo going forward:“Yeah it’s a major concern. You can play a lot with adrenaline, we’ve seen people play with broken feet and stuff like that. Honestly, moving forward, it’s, we’ll have to see, it’s going to be interesting, I’ll put it that way.”
Other injury updates? “Shaq came out of it good. Paul it was just cramps. Delonte is a major concern, shoulder could be worse than what we thought. You know, we’ll see.”
Doc on his reaction to seeing Rondo back: “Well that didn’t – it shocked me because he was out there because they said he wasn’t going to play, but once he walked out, it really didn’t surprise me in that way. We’ve got a bunch of guys like that. I’ve talked about it, it’s just ballers. Guys who like playing basketball, and they just play. They find a way. And that’s what he did.”
Did he inspire the team upon returning? “You know, I don’t know. I thought we were pretty inspired coming out of halftime. And I thought we played great the first eight minutes of the game and then we let them back in. And I thought our guys were really upset at that. And I thought in the second half, two things happened. The first unit came out with that same energy, and then the second unit – I thought Shaq (O’Neal) had a big impact in the second half, just his presence. Jeff Green was phenomenal. Delonte West gave us a lift. So I thought both units clicked. But clearly that got everyone excited. The only thing I’ve got to say – I just said – was when that whole thing happened, was ‘Composure. Don’t change the way you’re playing because we’ve got the lead. And we’re playing the right way. Don’t let any of this stuff distract you.’ And I was the most proud of that. Yeah, you know, it was awesome to see him back out on the floor, but at the end of the day it was great to see our team play.”
Rajon Rondo
On the play that caused his injury: “I thought I was trying to make a play on the ball and D. (Dwayne) Wade and I got tangled up. I tried to brace my fall and that’s when it happened.”
On if he’s concerned about his injury: “I’m not concerned. I’m glad we have a day off. I’ll be able to get a lot of treatment and hopefully I will be ready to play.”
On if he knew right away he had dislocated his shoulder: “I knew right away something was wrong when I went down but thank God for Kevin (Garnett) because I was having trouble breathing. I was worried about my elbow but I was having trouble breathing. I just kept hearing tell me to breathe. Everything else took care of itself.”
On his left arm after coming back in the game: “It was stiff but the main thing tonight is obviously it’s going to be in pain, but what makes it feel better is we got the win. That’s the main thing we got out of this game and that’s what we were focused on. Regardless of what happened, I went down (and) Paul (Pierce) went down, but regardless we got a win. We’ve got to move forward and try to get another game in two days.”
On if he thought he was out for the game and the series following his injury: “No. My adrenaline was too high. I fed off of the crowd’s energy (and) my teammates out there playing well. D. (Delonte) West did a great job. I just wanted to play and be a part of it. Regardless of what happened, I felt obviously my shot wasn’t going. I wasn’t doing much offensively, but I thought I could try to keep the game or change the game’s momentum by getting to the ball defensively. I just need two legs for that.”
On how hard it is to direct offense with injury: “It’s not hard at all especially with the way guys played tonight. I don’t have to do much scoring, just directing. Use your mouth and use my leg as far as defensively to slide. I couldn’t reach as much as I wanted to defensively but other than that I just tried to be an energy boost.”
On what went on in the locker room following injury: “I can’t really say exactly what happened, but it was still numb. It was still painful. They did a great job to get me back out there. I tried to ice it and see how it felt. I just wanted to play.”
On going forward: “Regardless of all the injuries that we have, we’re a no excuse team. If I’m on the court, you may see me hold my arm but I’m not going to use it as an excuse. If D. West is out there, it’s the same way. That’s how we play. That’s our mentality. We show up Monday night and we’re on the court and we’re playing. Don’t ask me how I feel. I’m going to play regardless. I’m not going to use it as an excuse. We’re a no excuse team.”
Kevin Garnett
On his thoughts when Rajon Rondo was taken off the court: “Honestly I was like, ‘Oh. Here we go again.’ It seems like we’ve been hit with the injury bug pretty hard this year. At that point, you just hope that he’s alright. I was right there when it happened. I was just trying to get him to relax. You see one of your brothers go down, the first thing you think because we were all there when Marquis (Daniels) went down. It’s never a good feeling. (It’s) someone’s father. It’s someone’s brother, someone’s son is on the floor hurt. My first thoughts were just his well being. I was just trying to get him to calm down and relax. You could tell he was breathing a little bit irregularly. I knew he was hurt. He’s a real tough dude. I’ve seen him play through some injuries. I saw his face. I knew he was kind of beat up. I was just trying to give him some confidence at that point.”
On how he felt when Rondo came back into the game: “I’ve seen him play through some (injuries). I’m not going to go through the list of injuries that you all are unaware of. I’m not going to put him out there like that but I’ve seen him play through some horrific injuries. All of us sort of look at each other like, ‘What is he doing out here? Is he being smart right now?’ When he came in, it was just typical Rondo. Shorty is a really tough, young individual and I don’t know what he’s going to be like when he’s 35 but right now he’s playing through a lot. He’s showing a lot of heart (and) a lot of grit. We see it. That doesn’t go unspoken or unseen. We see he’s out there giving his full effort. We’re following that lead.”
Miami coach Eric Spoelstra: “I’m sure it gave them a lift. But they had already established an energy to the game. They hit us first, they knocked us back, we took a few hits to the chin and we weren’t able to respond in a positive manner. We’ve handled adversity and been able to bounce back well, and I anticipate we will, and we do. We have great respect for what they’ve done and it will take our best effort along with very efficient basketball to beat them.”
Dwayne Wade on his collision with Rondo: “It’s a physical game, the game of basketball is a physical game. I’m not a dirty player, it’s physical. Everyone falls to the ground, everyone gets hurt, people get up. It was one of those things that you can’t really look at. Unfortunately you could tell that he dislocated his elbow. I’m not a doctor, but the way that it looked it was one of those things that you don’t want to look at. When guys like that, you move out the way and let the doctors get to it as soon as possible.”
“We play this game as competitors, we never want to see anyone hurt whether it is a friend or not a friend. It’s someone that we have respect for in this game. We have respect for each other. You never want to see no one get hurt, no matter what kind of injury it is. Kudos to him for coming back.
“That’s a tough injury to come back from that fast. It shows a lot as a leader of that team to come back and have the performance that he had with that injury. You never want to see anybody get hurt. We’re just glad that he was able to come back from it. Even though, people think that without Rondo they would be a different team, we want the Boston Celtics. We want them to be whole. Hopefully Monday he is there and he is ready to go.”
LeBron James: “You definitely don’t want to see anyone have, I guess what we call freak injuries. As competitive as we all are, us against Boston we definitely don’t want to see something like that happen. On the injury side, we basically hope the best for him and hopefully it wasn’t as bad as it looked from the floor. He (Wade) had a better angle than I did, but I seen it somewhat. Let’s just hope that it’s not something that can effect him long term.”
Doc Rivers on Rondo going forward:“Yeah it’s a major concern. You can play a lot with adrenaline, we’ve seen people play with broken feet and stuff like that. Honestly, moving forward, it’s, we’ll have to see, it’s going to be interesting, I’ll put it that way.”
Other injury updates? “Shaq came out of it good. Paul it was just cramps. Delonte is a major concern, shoulder could be worse than what we thought. You know, we’ll see.”
Doc on his reaction to seeing Rondo back: “Well that didn’t – it shocked me because he was out there because they said he wasn’t going to play, but once he walked out, it really didn’t surprise me in that way. We’ve got a bunch of guys like that. I’ve talked about it, it’s just ballers. Guys who like playing basketball, and they just play. They find a way. And that’s what he did.”
Did he inspire the team upon returning? “You know, I don’t know. I thought we were pretty inspired coming out of halftime. And I thought we played great the first eight minutes of the game and then we let them back in. And I thought our guys were really upset at that. And I thought in the second half, two things happened. The first unit came out with that same energy, and then the second unit – I thought Shaq (O’Neal) had a big impact in the second half, just his presence. Jeff Green was phenomenal. Delonte West gave us a lift. So I thought both units clicked. But clearly that got everyone excited. The only thing I’ve got to say – I just said – was when that whole thing happened, was ‘Composure. Don’t change the way you’re playing because we’ve got the lead. And we’re playing the right way. Don’t let any of this stuff distract you.’ And I was the most proud of that. Yeah, you know, it was awesome to see him back out on the floor, but at the end of the day it was great to see our team play.”
Rajon Rondo
On the play that caused his injury: “I thought I was trying to make a play on the ball and D. (Dwayne) Wade and I got tangled up. I tried to brace my fall and that’s when it happened.”
On if he’s concerned about his injury: “I’m not concerned. I’m glad we have a day off. I’ll be able to get a lot of treatment and hopefully I will be ready to play.”
On if he knew right away he had dislocated his shoulder: “I knew right away something was wrong when I went down but thank God for Kevin (Garnett) because I was having trouble breathing. I was worried about my elbow but I was having trouble breathing. I just kept hearing tell me to breathe. Everything else took care of itself.”
On his left arm after coming back in the game: “It was stiff but the main thing tonight is obviously it’s going to be in pain, but what makes it feel better is we got the win. That’s the main thing we got out of this game and that’s what we were focused on. Regardless of what happened, I went down (and) Paul (Pierce) went down, but regardless we got a win. We’ve got to move forward and try to get another game in two days.”
On if he thought he was out for the game and the series following his injury: “No. My adrenaline was too high. I fed off of the crowd’s energy (and) my teammates out there playing well. D. (Delonte) West did a great job. I just wanted to play and be a part of it. Regardless of what happened, I felt obviously my shot wasn’t going. I wasn’t doing much offensively, but I thought I could try to keep the game or change the game’s momentum by getting to the ball defensively. I just need two legs for that.”
On how hard it is to direct offense with injury: “It’s not hard at all especially with the way guys played tonight. I don’t have to do much scoring, just directing. Use your mouth and use my leg as far as defensively to slide. I couldn’t reach as much as I wanted to defensively but other than that I just tried to be an energy boost.”
On what went on in the locker room following injury: “I can’t really say exactly what happened, but it was still numb. It was still painful. They did a great job to get me back out there. I tried to ice it and see how it felt. I just wanted to play.”
On going forward: “Regardless of all the injuries that we have, we’re a no excuse team. If I’m on the court, you may see me hold my arm but I’m not going to use it as an excuse. If D. West is out there, it’s the same way. That’s how we play. That’s our mentality. We show up Monday night and we’re on the court and we’re playing. Don’t ask me how I feel. I’m going to play regardless. I’m not going to use it as an excuse. We’re a no excuse team.”
Kevin Garnett
On his thoughts when Rajon Rondo was taken off the court: “Honestly I was like, ‘Oh. Here we go again.’ It seems like we’ve been hit with the injury bug pretty hard this year. At that point, you just hope that he’s alright. I was right there when it happened. I was just trying to get him to relax. You see one of your brothers go down, the first thing you think because we were all there when Marquis (Daniels) went down. It’s never a good feeling. (It’s) someone’s father. It’s someone’s brother, someone’s son is on the floor hurt. My first thoughts were just his well being. I was just trying to get him to calm down and relax. You could tell he was breathing a little bit irregularly. I knew he was hurt. He’s a real tough dude. I’ve seen him play through some injuries. I saw his face. I knew he was kind of beat up. I was just trying to give him some confidence at that point.”
On how he felt when Rondo came back into the game: “I’ve seen him play through some (injuries). I’m not going to go through the list of injuries that you all are unaware of. I’m not going to put him out there like that but I’ve seen him play through some horrific injuries. All of us sort of look at each other like, ‘What is he doing out here? Is he being smart right now?’ When he came in, it was just typical Rondo. Shorty is a really tough, young individual and I don’t know what he’s going to be like when he’s 35 but right now he’s playing through a lot. He’s showing a lot of heart (and) a lot of grit. We see it. That doesn’t go unspoken or unseen. We see he’s out there giving his full effort. We’re following that lead.”
Miami coach Eric Spoelstra: “I’m sure it gave them a lift. But they had already established an energy to the game. They hit us first, they knocked us back, we took a few hits to the chin and we weren’t able to respond in a positive manner. We’ve handled adversity and been able to bounce back well, and I anticipate we will, and we do. We have great respect for what they’ve done and it will take our best effort along with very efficient basketball to beat them.”
Dwayne Wade on his collision with Rondo: “It’s a physical game, the game of basketball is a physical game. I’m not a dirty player, it’s physical. Everyone falls to the ground, everyone gets hurt, people get up. It was one of those things that you can’t really look at. Unfortunately you could tell that he dislocated his elbow. I’m not a doctor, but the way that it looked it was one of those things that you don’t want to look at. When guys like that, you move out the way and let the doctors get to it as soon as possible.”
“We play this game as competitors, we never want to see anyone hurt whether it is a friend or not a friend. It’s someone that we have respect for in this game. We have respect for each other. You never want to see no one get hurt, no matter what kind of injury it is. Kudos to him for coming back.
LeBron James: “You definitely don’t want to see anyone have, I guess what we call freak injuries. As competitive as we all are, us against Boston we definitely don’t want to see something like that happen. On the injury side, we basically hope the best for him and hopefully it wasn’t as bad as it looked from the floor. He (Wade) had a better angle than I did, but I seen it somewhat. Let’s just hope that it’s not something that can effect him long term.”
