Well, this is awkward.
Rajon Rondo is back in the NBA Finals after the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference finals.
The last time Rondo made the NBA Finals, of course, was 2010 -- when his Boston Celtics lost to the Lakers in seven games.
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So, how does Rondo feel about being on the doorstep of winning a championship with the franchise that broke his heart 10 years ago?
He's not trying to feel too much.
"I blurred a lot of it out," Rondo said Tuesday when asked about the 2010 NBA Finals, via The Boston Globe's Gary Washburn. "It was ugly."
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Rondo was just 24 years old when the Celtics jumped out to a 3-2 series lead over the Lakers in 2010, only to lose Game 6 in a rout and blow a 13-point lead in Game 7 as Los Angeles avenged its loss to Boston in the 2008 NBA Finals.
“We were up 3-2 and obviously we didn’t get the job done. We were up in the fourth quarter; that stands out to me, as well.
"... But that’s a long, long time ago, and I look forward to obviously changing the chapter and continuing to go past this different chapter in my life and write a better story ending."
The Lakers are Rondo's fifth team since he left Boston in 2015, so he's put some distance between himself and that 2010 Finals collapse -- in part by blocking it out of his memory completely.
Game 1 of the 2020 NBA Finals is Wednesday night, as the Lakers face the Heat after Miami dispatched Boston in the Eastern Conference finals.
