‘He’s hooked now’: Doc Rivers is confident Rajon Rondo has a future as an NBA coach

Rondo has been working part-time with Rivers's current team, the Bucks.

Doc Rivers and Rajon Rondo during their Celtics days in 2012. AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh

October 29, 2024

1 minute to read

If Rajon Rondo wants to become a head coach in the NBA someday, he’ll likely have at least one major endorsement waiting to go.

Doc Rivers, who coached Rondo for seven seasons in Boston, thinks his former point guard has a promising future in the world of coaching. Rondo, 38, is currently serving as in an unofficial capacity with the Bucks (coached by Rivers) as a “guest coach.”

“He definitely is the smartest player I’ve ever coached,” said Rivers, per MassLive’s Brian Robb. “It’s been a two-year thing of me trying to get him to do it. You know, he kind of dabbled in it, he kind of looks at it.”

For the moment, Rondo’s role with Milwaukee — for whom Rivers has been the coach since December of 2023 — remains part-time. He officially retired from playing basketball in April, 2024.

Circumstantially, Rivers noted that his former player might not be ready to jump all the way into the world of coaching.

“He’s got a son, it’s not that he didn’t want to be a coach,” explained Rivers. “He’s got a son that’s a really talented player and he’s working with him. We’re crafting out a schedule right now to try to give him enough time to be there and to be with us.”

Still, Rivers thinks part of his campaign pitch to get Rondo as a full-time coach has already worked.

Having instructed him to attend Bucks training camp — Rivers notably told Rondo to “Get your ass to camp” while attending his wedding in Italy earlier in 2024 — the longtime NBA coach believes it’s only a matter of time.

“The one thing I can tell you just through training camp that he spent, he’s hooked now, he loves it,” Rivers said. “It’s in him and once he gets in you, you can’t get out of you. So that was my goal.”