Protective order filed against Cavaliers’ Rondo
Bucks, Suns left to ponder what’s next after Game 7 losses
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Louisville woman has filed for an emergency protective order against Cleveland Cavaliers guard Rajon Rondo and alleges the former Kentucky star brandished a gun and threatened her life.
The woman alleges Rondo “became enraged” last week and filed for the EPO on Friday in Jefferson County Family Court, news outlets reported. She says in the EPO that Rondo was playing video games with a child when she asked the child to finish separating his laundry so she could wash the family’s clothes.
When the child got up to do so, she said Rondo ripped the video game console out of the wall, went downstairs, smashed a teacup plate, knocked over several water bottles and began yelling and cursing. According to the EPO, Rondo then went outside and knocked over the trash cans, stomped on the landscaping lights and drove his car onto the lawn.
When the woman confronted Rondo, the EPO continued, he said, “You’re dead.” After briefly leaving the house, Rondo came back and beat on a window with a gun. The woman said in the EPO that the player was yelling at the kids, asking them why they were scared of him while he had a gun in his hand.
The woman called former interim Louisville Metro Police chief Yvette Gentry, who arrived at the house. However, the woman said Rondo wouldn’t allow Gentry inside. The woman said she locked herself in the house with the kids, and Gentry eventually told her Rondo had left and she had his gun.
Two days after the alleged incident occurred, a judge granted the woman the protective order. The judge ordered Rondo not to communicate and to stay at least 500 feet away from her.
Rondo played 39 games last season between the Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers.
BUCKS: Khris Middleton
might not have been available for the Eastern Conference finals even if the Milwaukee Bucks had made it that far.
The three-time All-Star missed the Bucks’ last 10 games after spraining the medial collateral ligament in his left knee in Game 2 of a first-round series with the Chicago Bulls. Middleton sat out Milwaukee’s entire second-round series with the Boston Celtics, who beat the Bucks in seven games.
“I don’t know if I would have been ready for tomorrow,” Middleton said Monday. “I don’t know if I would have been ready if it went to Game 7. It was almost a day-by-day thing, just waking up and seeing how I felt, seeing if there’s swelling in there, and there’s a point where you have to make sure the ligament’s completely healed.”
Middleton’s absence was an unfortunate turn of events for the Bucks, who benefited from injuries to other teams during their title run last season. The Bucks won a seven-game East semifinal with the Brooklyn Nets after injuries knocked out James Harden for most of the first four games and Kyrie Irving for the last three games.
The Bucks did lose Giannis Antetokounmpo to a knee injury for two games in the East finals, but he returned to become MVP of the NBA Finals.
SUNS: Top-seeded Phoenix’s 123-90 loss to the Dallas Mavericks in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals will go down as one of the most embarrassing no-shows in NBA playoff history.
If it’s possible, the final score didn’t indicate how lopsided the game actually was. The Mavericks led by 46 points at one juncture and the game was never even remotely competitive.
Instead of going back to the NBA Finals, the Suns are left to wonder what went wrong.
“We didn’t step up to that challenge today,” Suns forward Cameron Johnson said. “I can’t tell you enough how much I wish I could rewind the clock a few hours.”
It’s difficult to know what to make of the Suns’ season. Yes, they won a franchise-record 64 games during the regular season. Yes, they had an All-Star backcourt of Chris Paul and Devin Booker. Yes, Monty Williams was the NBA’s Coach of the Year. Yes, when they were rolling they were one of the most entertaining teams to watch in the league.
And then the season ended … like that.
Most of the Suns’ nucleus is under contract for next season, including Paul, Booker, Mikal Bridges, Johnson and Jae Crowder.
But management has at least one big decision to make: Deandre Ayton’s future. The No. 1 overall pick in 2018 has had an up-and-down four seasons in the NBA. Now he’s a restricted free agent and wants a lucrative longterm contract. It’s unclear whether the Suns are willing to give it to him.