Los Angeles Lakers Report: Was Rajon Rondo telling truth about Chris Paul?

Los Angeles Lakers point guard Rajon Rondo had some choice words for Chris Paul following their skirmish last season. Was what Rondo said right?

It is official Los Angeles Lakers and NBA fans. There is absolutely no down time in the offseason. It seemed like 30 minutes after the Toronto Raptors won the NBA Finals, all seemingly was forgotten.

The Zion Williamson era started with the NBA Draft. Then afterwards, all of the superstars started playing musical chairs. Then Kawhi Leonard almost eliminated the Raptors from next season’s title chase (as well as the memory NBA fans out of Canada seemingly) by going back to Los Angeles to play for the Clippers.

The bigger shock was the orchestrating of the Paul George trade from the Oklahoma City Thunder.

If that wasn’t enough, a deal on Thursday happened. A deal that seemed even more unlikely than what Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Jerry West put together.

To be clear here, the surprise is not that Houston found a way to get Chris Paul out-of-town. By the time the Rockets were eliminated from the Western Conference semifinals with a Durant-less Golden State Warriors, it was rumored that Chris Paul and James Harden were dealing with philosophical differences.

The verbal altercation after the Game 6 loss was considered the last straw by Yahoo! Sports’ Vincent Goodwill as he called the relationship “unsalvageable”. Soon after, rumors of trade demands and offers started floating around.

If the locker room was being divided because of these two, fueled by reports that Harden and Paul had gone numerous weeks without speaking to each other, this is nothing new. It just depends on how bad you believe the rift was.

Does any of this sound familiar? It shouldn’t.

Remember Dwight Howard and James Harden had the same problems a few years ago before he was dismissed to Atlanta on the first leg of his journeyman tour. That tour has led Howard out of the NBA pending Memphis’ time frame of waiving him. But who’s to blame here? Is it James Harden or Chris Paul?

This past week Kenyon Martin talked to SI Now about how he was not surprised that Chris Paul was the odd man out in Houston.

"“People have heard these things before about Chris Paul, not only from me but other teammates,” Martin said. “Where there’s smoke, I’m a firm believer there’s fire.” “He always wants to be the biggest voice in the room when it comes to basketball and I think that rubs guys the wrong way.”"

No matter how anyone tries to spin this story, James Harden basically demanded Russell Westbrook to be brought to Houston the second Oklahoma City made it clear that Westbrook was available.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski is already reporting that the Thunder is already planning to deal Chris Paul to another team (Miami is the rumored favorite) before training camp. How else can you explain Houston taking on an even worse contract in Russell Westbrook than Chris Paul’s three-year, $124 million dollar contract while giving up first-round picks for the privilege?

In other words, Chris Paul’s contract has turned him into an overrated, aging star in decline that has forced himself out of three NBA franchises. In short, he is a liability.

With this being a Los Angeles Lakers website, why is the conversation about a deal with Houston? What does that have to do with the Lakers?

Okay, listen to Tony Kornheiser and Stephen A. Smith talk about the Chris Paul situation and how the Lakers could get involved.

Let’s just say for argument’s sake that Chris Paul takes the buyout and becomes a free agent. Is there a chance that he would join LeBron James in L.A. filling the point guard void? Let me answer that question for you. Umm, yes.

Only one thing, though, Rajon Rondo just signed a two-year deal with the Lakers just last week. Plus I’m sure that everyone at this point knows that Rajon Rondo and Chris Paul can’t stand each other.

The Chris Paul narrative is not a good look at this point. But somebody warned us all long before all of this came to pass. His name is Rajon Rondo.

When he was suspended for his fight with Chris Paul early in the season, he was very vocal about what type of teammate Paul was. He was torched in the media as a jealous player that was not afforded the respect of his nemesis. Let’s take a look back, shall we?

“Spit Gate” on a Saturday night in the Staples Center!

At the time, the Los Angeles Lakers were the center of the NBA universe with the excitement of LeBron James leading the team out on primetime the first weekend of the NBA season.

ESPN hyped the game up all week-long as the first NBA on ABC game of the season. The Lakers eventually lost the game to the Houston Rockets 124-115.

The Lakers dropped to 0-2 for the season and no one really remembers because of the incident that happened between James Harden, Brandon Ingram, Chris Paul and Rajon Rondo.

In case you need a small reminder, here’s what happened.

With just over four minutes left in the game, you see James Harden coming down on the break. Running back on defense is Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram. Harden lowers his shoulder into Ingram and bulls him out-of-the-way and hits the layup.

After the referees go back and forth with Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony and Harden arguing that the shot should have counted. Ingram shoves Harden in the back.

Then Ingram gets in the referee’s face which prompts Lance Stephenson to come in and grab Ingram. While all of that is going on Rondo and Chris Paul get in each other’s face and the fight started.

https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1053877852821581824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1053877852821581824&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flakeshowlife.com%2F2018%2F10%2F21%2Flos-angeles-lakers-people-missing-point-fight%2F

What we do know is that Chris Paul putting his finger in Rondo’s face DEFINITELY lead to Rondo swinging. Reports of Rondo spitting Paul’s face led to the finger.

There have been reports that Carmelo Anthony may have spit on Chris Paul talking trying to break things up. Reports leaked that things went past the floor into the crowd.

This fight led to a heated debate that went in so many directions on social media and even on Lake Show Life. There was many a discussion in the comments section of the articles that I wrote based on if Brandon Ingram was right or wrong for pushing Harden. The biggest debate was about was Rajon Rondo justified in throwing the punch. At the time, no one knew the specifics of what really happened. There was only speculation.

After the suspensions and the facts were collected, the real story happened.

Rajon Rondo dealt with his suspension a little bit differently than Brandon Ingram and Chris Paul

The major part of the investigation was about if Rajon Rondo did indeed spit on Chris Paul.

Video evidence did show some wet clear liquid come out of Rondo’s mouth. Rajon Rondo had a lot to say concerning what happened from his point of view to ESPN.

"As Rondo explained it to ESPN, “I had a mouthpiece in my mouth and I exasperated because I was about to tell him to ‘get the [expletive] out of here.’ ” It’s possible that, rather than “exasperated,” Rondo meant to say “expectorated,” but his point was that if spittle from his mouth landed on Paul’s face, it was not by design. “Y’all are playing me with these tricks or these mind games, tampering with the evidence,” the 13th-year point guard asserted. “Ain’t no way that I intentionally spit on you with my body language the way it was. “One, if I spit on you, bottom line, there is not going to be no finger-pointing. If you felt that I just spit on you, then all bets are off. Two, look at my body language. If I spit on you on purpose, I’m going to be ready for a man to swing on me. You ain’t going to have my hands on my hip and my head look away at someone if I spit on them.”"

I mean you make the call on if he’s telling the truth or not.

But it’s what Rajon Rondo stated about Chris Paul as a teammate that leads to a discussion that may be floating around the NBA as executives consider bringing Chris Paul on their roster at a salary cap killing price.

"“Everyone wants to believe Chris Paul is a good guy. They don’t know he’s a horrible teammate. They don’t know how he treats people. Look at what he did last year when he was in L.A.; trying to get to the Clippers’ locker room. They don’t want to believe he’s capable of taunting and igniting an incident."

I have to give Rajon Rondo credit, he made a great point there. Let’s look at what happened.

Rajon Rondo was not lying about the Clippers locker room incident

What is really amazing about this story at the time was Chris Paul, James Harden and Trevor Ariza reportedly tried to confront Austin Rivers who is now in Houston playing for the Rockets. It was no secret that Paul was not happy about the perceived nepotism of current head coach and former head of basketball operations Doc Rivers.

It was also rumored that Chris Paul and Blake Griffin‘s relationship had soured by the time Paul made his exit. Both scenarios may have played a part in Chris Paul making his way to Houston.

On the night the Rockets played the Clippers, there were fireworks. But to this day, the way the NBA on TNT staff dealt with it was classic.

It was so funny that it was made into a cartoon. 

With Chris Paul allegedly trying to confront former teammates, it does make you wonder if Chris Paul is a good teammate or not.

Kenyon Martin already stated his feelings on the subject. Glen “Big Baby” Davis called him a bad teammate as well. But Gerald Green called Chris Paul a great teammate after Rajon Rondo’s comments.

Look Rajon Rondo definitely makes a point here. But in the court of Lake Show Life, let’s do a cross-examination.

Rajon Rondo held his grudge on Stephen A. Smith’s take on how long his suspension should be.

Rajon Rondo wasn’t too thrilled about Stephen A. Smith’s opinion about Rondo deserving 15 games for the fight with Chris Paul. For the record, most thought that is what Ingram and Rondo would get for their part of the fight.

Based on past history with the “Malice at the Palace” and the brawl that happened with Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith back in 2006 is a barometer for early speculation.

Stephen A. Smith went on his radio show to address Rajon Rondo’s behavior a couple of weeks later when they were in the same area.

He also had this to say on First Take before discussing the Lakers loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

"“As an aside, I just wanted, if you don’t mind, I just wanted to deviate away from this particular subject. I wanted to start off the show saying something — when I was in the Lakers locker room last night, Mr. Rondo directed a very disrespectful comment my way. He didn’t say it by name. I was standing right next to him. I just kept my head down because out of respect to the Los Angeles Lakers as an organization, I didn’t want to make a scene. So, I just left it at that. I just want Rondo to know I know that. Number 1. And Number 2 — I stand by my proclamation that he deserved a 15-game suspension for spitting in the face of Chris Paul. And last but not least, I just want to say out of respect for him, I would remind him … I never said anything about why he left Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Sacramento, it goes on and on. I’ll just leave it at that. “Anytime he wants to have a big man conversation, I’m more than willing to have a conversation because I do respect him.”"

The funny thing about Chris Paul and Rajon Rondo is that they have the exact same competitive personalities. With both having the same high basketball I.Q., that’s why they can easily get under people’s skin the way they do.

Shocker: Nothing. Both Rondo and Paul would be on their best behavior.

Assuming that the Thunder did buy out Chris Paul’s contract, that would mean that CP3 would be without a team. Rajon Rondo just signed a two-year contract with a player option. Who thought back when the fight happened that Rajon Rondo would have more stability at this point than Chris Paul.

Don’t let Chris Paul’s contract fool you. Remember Carmelo Anthony made close to $30 million dollars last year even though he was passed around the league like a cardboard box full of dirty clothes. Paul will receive over $100 million dollars in the buyout but even then Oklahoma City will save a ton of money from getting out from under Russell Westbrook’s albatross contract.

No matter how Chris Paul leaves the Thunder, his reputation is taking a downward turn just like Carmelo Anthony’s did last year. It’s not about the talent these players have, it’s the reputation in the locker room and team chemistry.

It was reported that the Lakers had a roster spot for Carmelo Anthony if the Lakers got on a roll for the playoffs. It never happened. It would be hard-pressed to see the Lakers passing Chris Paul over if he was on the free agent market especially with the point guard rumors floating around.

Will there be tension with Rondo and Paul in the same locker room? Sure. But nothing will happen in my opinion. Chris Paul has never played in an NBA Finals. If he came to the Lakers, this would be his last legitimate shot at a championship. Plus he should know the alternative with one of the “Banana Boat” crew out of the NBA on Melo.

Rajon Rondo is expendable. Even he knows that. The Lakers always knew he was an option when Kawhi Leonard was making up his mind. There are no other NBA teams looking for Rondo. Getting that two-year deal was a real boon for him.

If they do play together on the same team, NBA writers will love it because the Lakers will officially be just as exciting off the court as on.