Rajon Rondo, Pondering Coaching Career, to Join Bucks in Unspecified Role This Season

The longtime guard last played in 2022.

Rondo with the Cavaliers in 2022. / David Richard-Imagn Images

As a player, longtime guard Rajon Rondo was revered for his basketball IQ.

Now, it appears Rondo is set to put that IQ to good use this season.

Rondo is joining the Milwaukee Bucks in an unspecified role and is currently serving as a guest coach in training camp, according to a Thursday afternoon report from Baxter Holmes of ESPN.

"You'll see him a lot," Bucks coach Doc Rivers told Holmes. "That's all I'll say."

Rondo last played basketball in 2022 for the Cleveland Cavaliers. He has navigated a pair of legal issues since then: a May '22 incident where he was accused of pulling a gun on a woman (resulting in a later-dismissed emergency protective order), and a January 2024 arrest on drug and gun charges.

"There's a lot of factors that go into coaching," Rondo told Holmes. "You just can't say, I'm going to be a coach, and then everything works out and that's how it happens. ... There are certain things that I'm learning. The morning meetings, the amount of hours you're spending watching film, it's a lot."

Still, the four-time All-Star appears up to the challenge.

"I just think there's certain guys that should be a coach," Rivers—who coached Rondo to the 2008 NBA title with the Boston Celtics—said.

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