Rick Carlisle: Rajon Rondo Won’t Play for the Mavs Again

The Rajon Rondo Era in Dallas was short-lived, and quickly turned into an acrimonious trainwreck.

Following his Game 2 benching against the Houston Rockets, the Mavericks ruled out the point guard indefinitely with a mysterious “back injury”, and head coach Rick Carlisle says Rondo’s days with the team are over.

Rajon will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, and the Mavs want nothing more to do with him.

Per the Dallas Morning News:

Rick Carlisle, who probably knows better than anybody else, couldn’t have been more succinct or clear when asked if he ever believes Rajon Rondo will wear a Mavericks uniform again. […] “No, I don’t.”

 

And with that, the experiment that had been been bubbling ever since the December trade that brought Rondo to the Mavericks officially has blown up. […] Actually, the official word from the team is that Rondo suffered a back injury when he tried to take a charge from James Harden in the first minute of Game 2 on Tuesday in Houston.

 

As for the Mavericks, they will go into the off-season knowing they will have to find another starting point guard for the fourth season in a row since Jason Kidd left. […] “I like Rondo,” Carlisle said. “My relationship with him was professional. We learned a lot going through this, trying to make this thing work. It being an injury is something we didn’t want.”