After Breonna Taylor Decision, LeBron James Says Lakers Have Supported Louisville Native Rajon Rondo
The past few days have been tough for Rajon Rondo.
Rondo is from Louisville, Kentucky, where Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black emergency medical technician, was shot by Louisville Metro Police officers March 13 in her apartment in a botched raid.
On Wednesday, a grand jury in Kentucky decided to indict one of the three officers involved in her shooting with wanton endangerment for firing into a neighbor’s apartment, but none of the officers were charged her for death.
The Lakers have since rallied around Rondo.
"We wanted to be there for our brother, Do." LeBron James said after the Lakers' 114-108 win over the Denver Nuggets in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals on Thursday. "As much as it's devastating to us, you can only imagine it happening in your backyard. 'Do being from Louisville, we knew how tough it had to be on his family and the locals there."
Davis echoed James, adding that players have tried to support Rondo while also dealing with their own emotions.
"He doesn't say much about it, but we feel his pain as well," Davis said. "Justice wasn't served in a lot of people's eyes and, you know, Rondo being from Louisville and me just playing in Kentucky, I understand how connected everyone is, and so I have a tie kind of somewhat. But we are here for Rondo. We told him, you know, [Thursday] or [Wednesday], anything he needs from us, we have his back no matter what it is."
There have been protests in Louisville the past two nights.
On Wednesday evening, two Louisville police officers were shot.
Despite the grand jury's decision and its fallout, James said the Lakers never considered not playing in Thursday's game.
But Davis added that it's difficult to concentrate on basketball amid social injustice and unrest.
"It's tough for all of us to come out and play, and for him to come out and play, especially the way he played [Thursday] with everything going on in his backyard," Davis said. "His family is there, so he told me [Wednesday] that they was already like burning things down and stuff like that. Like I said, his family is there, and anything we can do to help him kind of just keep fighting, we're going to do it."
Despite everything, Rondo was key for the Lakers in their Game 4 win.
He passed Scottie Pippen for eighth place on the NBA's all-time playoff assists list, finishing with 11 points, seven assists and five rebounds in 22 minutes.
"'Do has been in a lot of playoff games," James said of the 14-year veteran who won a title with the Boston Celtics in 2008. "He's won a championship. He's played at the highest level, and he's someone that we can trust. In the postseason, every possession is so important. When you can have guys that have been in the moments and can understand and also be able to make adjustments on the fly, and know that you can count on them down the stretch, it just makes the team and you individually feel so much more confident in the outcome."
James said throughout everything that's happened since the Lakers have arrived in the NBA bubble at Walt Disney World in Florida in June, his teammates have supported each other.
The Lakers, who have a 3-1 series lead over the Nuggets, are one win away from their first NBA Finals appearance in 10 years.
But James said all of that is of secondary importance.
"This game is so much bigger than just us getting on the floor and running around and calling out screens and running plays and making mistakes and trying to figure out how we can be better the next time," he said. "There's also a big thing called life that's involved in this, too. And to have, like you said, things that happened in Kenosha, and the Breonna Taylor case and so many other things that are going on in America, as we speak and as we move forward, being around people that you can trust and confide in, be able to talk to, bounce things off and not feel that you have to tackle it by yourself, I think that's very important when you have a support system like that."
