Mark Price is Right for Rondo

Posted on September 30, 2009 by Nick Gelso

In an interesting tidbit posted to Celtics Blog, they report information from CSN that Rajon Rondo worked on his jumper all summer with Mark Price in Atlanta.

Rondo practiced his jump shot with former Cav, Mark Price.

Former Providence coach Tim Welsh said on CSN that Rondo went to Atlanta and worked with Mark Price on his shooting all summer. Welsh said before Rondo was a bad shooter and now he is an average shooter. Apparently Rondo has corrected the flaw in his shooting form.

Welsh said Rondo worked out every day all summer with Price and that he’s keeping his elbow in now. Welsh expects him to take many jumpers in preseason to get his confidence down.

Rondo, who’s form has always been a bit awkward, struggled with jump shooting and foul shooting. His notoriously cockeyed elbow issue has, supposedly, been corrected and Rajon has shown an improvement in his touch. Celtics Blog reported that Rondo is expected to shoot more often during pre-season to work up his confidence.

This is excellent news, even if Rondo just shoots more often, improving his field goal percentage by a few percentage points. The mere fact that Rondo is not continuously passing up open jump shots should help the Celtics offense. Throughout his career, Rondo has been a liability on offense when given the open jumper.

Team’s constantly sagged off him, I would often find myself screaming at the TV, “SHOOT IT!”

Even if he missed sixty percent of the time, the fact that he shot the ball and made it forty (+) percent would eliminate the opposing defense from sagging off and clogging the lanes, haulting the offense.

So, Rajon, keep practicing. Mark Price is a great mentor and KEEP SHOOTING when your open!

Nick Gelso covers the Boston Celtics and NBA for Boston Sports Then and Now. You can check out more of his great work on his blog: North Station Sports.

Tags: Basketball, Boston, Boston Celtics, Mark Price, NBA, rajon rondo
Category Basketball, Boston Celtics
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BST&N Looks Back....

Vintage Athlete Of The Month: Andy Brickley
April 21, 2012 | 11:06 am

Andy Brickley

Andy Brickley’s voice is familiar throughout New England and to those of us out-of-market fans who get the NESN broadcasts via the NHL’s Center Ice package. Brickley is the top TV analyst for Boston Bruins’ hockey games. Most fans know he was a part of Boston’s 1989-90 teams that reached the Stanley Cup Finals. What many fans may not know is how hard Brickley has had to work for everything in his career. To pay tribute to his effort and to acknowledge his tremendous contributions to the culture of Boston Bruins hockey is why he is BST&N’s Vintage Athlete Of The Month for April.

The need to prove himself to skeptics started right away in college. Brickley went to school at New Hampshire, but had to walk on the hockey team. He made the squad and played all four years, from 1979-82. By the end of his career he had made first-team All-American and led New Hampshire to the Frozen Four in his senior year.

Two years into his college career he was selected in the NHL Entry Draft, but by the skin of his teeth—Brickley was the final player chosen in a 210-player draft, going to the Philadelphia Flyers. He began his pro career there in the fall of 1982, but a year later he was traded to Pittsburgh, as part of a package involving multiple players and draft picks.

By rights, this should have been the point when his career took off. He scored 18 goals in 50 games, the highest goal output of his career and also had 12 assists. But he ended up demoted to the minor leagues for the egregious sin of breaking curfew. To put the early 1980s in perspective, this was a time when frequent reports of players’ cocaine addictions were becoming public—in all sports. Seen in that light, the idea of demoting Brickley because he broke curfew seems absurd beyond belief.

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