I was reading an article over at Bleacher Report about Rondo stat-padding. Here's a bit of what they wrote.  

Bleacher Report

 

"It’s true that Rondo routinely passes up open shots to look for teammates. He’s a true point guard, and like any true point guard, he’s at least slightly obsessed with assists. But faulting him for focusing on that particular statistic is like chastising a big-spender for donating too much money to charity. His obsession translates directly to making his teammates better, which translates directly to the Celtics winning basketball games.

Tony Manfred of Business Insider sums the entire anomaly up nicely in a piece he wrote right after the game against the Pistons: “Stat-padding is bad because it’s inherently selfish, but at the same time assists are inherently unselfish.”

So, sure, Rondo can be accused of padding his stats. Rivers and the Celtics can be accused of helping him do it. But in no way is it a problem; if anything, it makes the team better."

The art of what Rondo does is unselfish, and Rondo doing what he does isn't stat-padding. It's simply him doing his job. The role of a point guard is to pass first, and to score second. The point sets up the best players on the team. I saw a great comment from that post from a reader.

"If Rondo ended world hunger there would be people condemning him for contributing to overpopulation.

He's the new Isiah Thomas.

He's not necessarily a nice guy, so people hate him. But's he's arguably the best player at his position."

It seems as if he is the new Thomas. Think about it, the media loves the Paul, and Rose's of the world. Rondo is picked apart for every little move he makes. Rondo makes a lot of mistakes, but what he does on the court doesn't define him as a person. Rondo plays with a hidden fire that doesn't come out like KG's fire, but his passion to win may even be deeper than many think. I also believe if Rondo was stat-padding that he would nearly have a triple-double every game.

 

It's very unfortunate that many look past Rondo's art form. If they stop, and take it in. They may see something that is unique, and something they may not see again.