9781422288016

Rajon Rondo

SUPERSTARS in the WORLD of BASKETBALL

LeBron James Dwyane Wade Kobe Bryant Carmelo Anthony Kevin Durant Chris Paul Dwight Howard

Rajon Rondo Blake Griffin Players & the Game Around the World

SUPERSTARS in the WORLD of BASKETBALL

Rajon Rondo

Aurelia Jackson

Mason Crest

Mason Crest 450 Parkway Drive, Suite D

Broomall, PA 19008 www.masoncrest.com

Copyright © 2015 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc. All rights re- served. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

First printing 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Series ISBN: 978-1-4222-3101-2 ISBN: 978-1-4222-3111-1 ebook ISBN: 978-1-4222-8801-6

Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file with the Library of Congress.

Contents

1. Finding Basketball

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2. Overcoming Challenges

17 27 37 45 46 47 48

3. Finals Champion 4. Rajon Rondo Today

Series Glossary of Key Terms

Find Out More

Index

About the Author & Picture Credits

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RAJON RONDO

1

F inding B asketball

I t’s the sixth game of the 2008 NBA Finals. Rajon Rondo is tired, but he isn’t slowing down. He has a game to win. The Boston Celtics are competing in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1987. They have not won a championship since 1986. If Boston wins this game, the team will become the NBA champions. Rajon sees an opponent with the ball and moves close to him. He ducks and reaches out his arms quick. Bam! Rajon smacks the ball from his opponent’s hands and dribbles it down the court. Rajon runs up to the basket as though he is going to score but passes the ball to his teammate. Ray Allen catches the ball and jumps up before shooting it from the three-point line. The ball swishes through the net, and the crowd cheers! Every basketball player has his strengths. Rajon is best known for his assists and steals. On this play, he earned both a steal and an assist. Taking the ball away from an opponent earned him a steal. Passing the ball to Ray, who scored, gave him an assist. Pulling off a great play like this requires a lot of teamwork. The best teams in the NBA have players who work well together, just like Rajon and Ray. Rajon stole the ball, dribbled it down the

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Growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, wasn’t always easy for Rajon and his family, but his mother made sure that he didn’t fall in with the wrong crowd or get in trouble.

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RAJON RONDO

Make Connections According to his family, teachers, and coaches, Rajon was always very smart. He just didn’t have any interest in doing his schoolwork. He wouldn’t do his homework and forgot to bring his books to class. Rajon didn’t complete his homework unless he was forced to do it. All this changed when he started playing sports. His mother and coaches warned him that if he didn’t get good grades, he wouldn’t be able to play. This strategy worked, and Rajon became a great student.

court, and passed it to Ray. Ray took the shot and scored the points. Many more baskets were scored this way throughout the game. The Celtics won the game by 39 points. Thanks to the efforts of Rajon Rondo, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen, the Celtics became the 2008 NBA champions. This was only the beginning for Rajon. In just his second season as an NBA player, he was already a star. There are still many years ahead of him. EARLY YEARS Rajon Pierre Rondo was born February 22, 1986, in Louisville, Kentucky. His parents are William and Amber Rondo. They had three other children together: Dymon, William, and Anton. His father left the family when Rajon was just seven years old. His older brother, William Jr., was eleven. Amber was forced to raise her children without the help of their father. She worked long hours at a Philip Morris factory. They make tobacco products, like cigarettes. Amber worked late so that she could make enough money to take care of her children. Her oldest son, William, looked after his siblings while his mother was at work. He also ran errands and cooked for the family if it was needed. Amber woke up early to take her children to school, but William sometimes made breakfast. Rajon and his siblings did not grow up in a very good neighborhood. Their mother couldn’t make enough money to afford a nice house. She did her best to make sure there was food on the table, but that was not the only problem her family faced. There was a lot of crime on the streets. If Amber wasn’t careful, her children might make friends with the wrong people. Amber found a great way to keep her children safe. Using the little money she made at her job, she built a basketball court in her backyard. It was a great idea, because it kept her children safe at home and encouraged them to stay active and healthy. She also bought her children a lot of board games, including Connect Four, Monopoly, and

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F i ndi ng Baske tbal l

Education was very important for Rajon’s mother while he was growing up. She always made sure her sons got their homework done and kept their grades up.

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RAJON RONDO

Rajon and his brother played a lot of board games and sports as kids. The two learned about what it means to compete against others while still getting along.

Battleship. Sometimes, neighborhood kids would visit to play these games with the Rondo family. Even though Amber wasn’t home very often, she did have strict rules for her children. They were allowed to play outside, but they needed to come home the second the street- lights turned on. Amber would not allow them to go out at night. Schoolwork was also very important. Amber made sure Rajon did his homework and stayed active in school. The Rondos went to church regularly and visited other family members often. Supporting her children’s love for sports was very important to Amber. She drove her children to prac- tice and went to every game she could. William is four years older than Rajon. The two brothers were very close while they were growing up. Rajon learned a lot from William. William helped Rajon with his schoolwork

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F i ndi ng Baske tbal l

Rajon and his brother loved sports more than anything else. Rajon’s brother, William, loved football more than any other sport. Team sports like football were an important part of Rajon’s childhood in Kentucky.

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RAJON RONDO

Make Connections Many young athletes look up to more successful ones. Growing up, one of Rajon’s favorite athletes was Brett Favre. Brett was a football player who spent most of his career as a quarterback for the Green Bay Packers. Rajon found an idol in Brett, even though football and basketball are two very different sports. He models his game after his childhood idol to this day.

and even with learning how to ride a bicycle. Rajon refused to use training wheels, be- cause he believed they would slow him down. “He was determined not to be left behind,” William said in an interview. “By the end of the day, he’d learned how to ride the bike on his own.” Rajon spent a lot of time with his older brother. A few of their favorite activities in- cluded going to the arcade, racing their bikes around town, and playing basketball in the backyard. When the Rondo brothers were old enough, they started playing team sports at school. William played football in high school and college. Rajon followed in his brother’s footsteps and played football as well. “He was a pretty good quarterback growing up. He taught me everything I knew,” Rajon said in an interview with Boston magazine. Amber taught William and Rajon the importance of friendly competition. They were brothers before they were opponents. Any teasing between them was all in good fun. It didn’t matter if they were playing football on a field, shooting hoops in the backyard, or playing card games on the porch. Rajon always wanted to win. If he didn’t win the first time, he demanded a rematch. The rematches wouldn’t stop until Rajon finally won a game. This drive to succeed helped Rajon rise to the top as a basketball player.

Research Project This chapter mentioned that it’s important for basketball players to be tall. Ra- jon certainly f its this description; he’s six feet one inch tall, well over the average height for men. Go online and look up the average male height in the United States. Now, f ind what the average height of an NBA player is. Which is taller? Why is being tall so important for a basketball player?

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F i ndi ng Baske tbal l

Rajon loved basketball more than any other sport and worked hard to become the best player he could be. Rajon dreamed of one day playing in the NBA.

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