Rajon Rondo, get a hold of yourself!

Late in the second quarter of the Nets-Celtics game, with the Nets up by 16, Kevin Garnett drove to the basket and Kris Humphries fouled him hard, sending him to the ground. Rajon Rondo took umbrage from the play, pushed Humphries hard, got in his face and threw some punches, starting a fracas that went into the stands.

(see the video here)

Rajon Rondo is a punk. What was he thinking? First off, going after another player will immediately get him ejected and he knows that. Doesn’t he know that he is the team’s most important player? Doesn’t he know that the Celtics can’t win without him? Doesn’t he know that this is a divisional rivalry game against a good team that has already beaten his team once? The game was still early enough for the Celtics to possibly come back. Isn’t he also aware that he has a personal streak, a historical 37-game streak of double-digit assists on the line?

The foul wasn’t even egregious. Garnett was driving down the baseline, Humphries was defending him, KG went up, Hump made a weak attempt at either blocking the ball or disrupting KG to make sure he missed it, knocked him hard as KG was already off balance, and Garnett helped the ref out by theatrically tumbling to the floor. Hump came down on his shoulder, not the face. It was a hard foul between two large men, one that happens in nearly every quarter of every NBA game. It was going to be a personal foul for two free throws. And Rondo decided to pick a fight over it.

Some will say, “Wow, what a great teammate, sticking up for his friends.” No sir, this is a bad teammate, one that stuck his nose into a play that didn’t even involve him, caused a huge fight that spilled into the stands, and the only question now is how many games will he miss because of it. Is KG so fragile that there is a need to start a fight because of a one-armed push during a defensive play? Does Rondo have that little control over his emotions that he must react to a hard foul by creating a brawl? Sadly, this isn't the first time RR has done something like this. Rondo is too important to his team to miss games because of immature, punk actions like this. This was an ugly mark for the NBA, and an incident that hurts Rajon Rondo’s teammates and team.