A Fleeting Glimpse of Playoff Rondo

The Chicago Bulls point guard Rajon Rondo is the only N.B.A. player I can think of with a nickname that can only be used for two months a year. That sometime moniker, “Playoff Rondo,” points to his propensity for saving his best performances for this biggest and most visible stage. It’s a bit like Reggie Jackson’s “Mr. October,” except that while Jackson’s seasonal sobriquet had purely positive connotations, indicating his ability to accomplish incredible feats when they mattered most, Rondo’s tag is meant, partly, to suggest that maybe he’s dogging it a bit the rest of the time. It’s hard to tell whether he simply plays harder for the national-TV cameras or if, for him, it’s somehow easier to be fully present when the stakes are clear and close at hand.

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