Rajon Rondo had some of the best years of his career with Doc Rivers as his coach. Now that he’s retired, he and Rivers have continued their bond, with Rondo joining the Milwaukee Bucks as a part-time guest coach this season. Rivers asked his former point guard to join him on the staff during training camp, and the partnership has proven fruitful for everyone involved, even if Rondo isn’t exactly benefiting monetarily from the arrangement.
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Rondo joined the Run It Back podcast this week to talk about his experience with the Bucks, which has included not only overcoming a rough start to the season but also getting hot at the right time to win the NBA Cup. He laughed when asked by co-host Michelle Beadle if he got any of the prize money from the Bucks’ NBA Cup win.
@RajonRondo‘s payday for helping coach the Bucks to their NBA Cup win was the memories he made along the way
“What I got is priceless; the experience, the people I was able to network with. I’m not in it for that right now. I need the knowledge.”
https://t.co/VPI1jNDTPq pic.twitter.com/vz4M1MUyrp
— Run It Back (@RunItBackFDTV) January 22, 2025
“No, what I got is priceless. Just the experience, the people I was able to network with. I’m not in it for that right now. I need the knowledge and just to learn as much as I can. It’ll benefit for the next 15, 20 years.”
Rondo’s answer sounds diplomatic for the sake of being diplomatic, but if he’s interested in a career in coaching, he’s absolutely right. Being around a team that’s making a run, getting to coach guys like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, that will all be invaluable to him. Besides, the pay isn’t even as great as Run It Back made it sound. Head coaches of the winning NBA Cup team get $500,000, but assistants share 75 percent of that, which comes out to $375,000. According to NBA.com, the Bucks have seven of those, and that doesn’t include Rondo, who doesn’t have a full-time position. That means that, if divided equally, those assistants each get a little over $53,000, which should be chump change to a guy who made more than $115 million in his 16-year career.
The Bucks have turned themselves into legit Eastern Conference contenders
Milwaukee looked dead in the water after a 1-6 start to the season, but they’re now the 4-seed in the East at 24-17. They’re currently riding a four-game winning streak, and with an upcoming five-game stretch that includes dates with the lottery-bound Pelicans, Jazz, and Blazers, it may not be long until they catch the Knicks for the 3-seed.
The Cavs have looked nearly unstoppable all season, but the race to see who will be their main challenger in the playoffs is wide open. The defending champion Celtics seem like the most likely candidate, but Boston has struggled lately by alternating wins and losses in their last nine games. The Knicks have also been a bit two-faced this season, while the Pacers, Hawks, and Magic haven’t looked like anything more than early-round exits.
That leaves the Bucks, who have been playing as well as just about anybody since mid-November. Any team with Giannis Antetokounmpo can never be counted out, and Rivers, who now is in his first full season as Bucks head coach after being thrust into an impossible situation last year, has the pedigree to lead a deep playoff run. Rondo has already gotten invaluable experience as a part-time member of Milwaukee’s staff, and that could continue well into the spring if the Bucks keep playing like this.
