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Josh Smith calls Rondo rumors 'sick joke'

Print | Comments () Posted by Julian Benbow, Globe Staff December 2, 2011 11:02 AM

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By Julian Benbow, Globe staff

Sekou Smith has NBA.com's Hang Time blog up and running again and he talked to Atlanta Hawks forward Josh Smith about his friend and high school teammate Rajon Rondo and the trade rumors around the All Star point guard.

Smith's reaction was pretty strong.

Rajon didn’t talk much about it but let me do it for him,” Smith said. “It’s mind-boggling to me to see people talking about getting rid of a player who damn-near broke his arm during the playoffs last year for his team and kept playing. We’re talking about arguably the best player in the playoffs for his team energy-wise, defensively and offensively.

It’s a sick joke. For anyone to talk about getting rid of him, one of the elite point guards in this league and a true point who passes first and shoots second … it just reminds me of what I already knew, that the NBA is strictly a business. They can try to make it as family oriented as they want to, but at the end of the day it’s a business. And the fact is there is no loyalty in the NBA or any other profession. It’s always business.”

Smith played in Rondo's charity game last month at Harvard.