Rajon Rondo gets words of advice from Pierce and Garnett

Rajon Rondo is now the focal point of the Boston Celtics. A lot is riding on his shoulders and nobody knows this more than his former teammates. Both Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett struggled through many a rebuilding year while Rondo has been mostly spoiled by winning. So they wanted to emphasize to Rajon that he's going to have to go through years like the one coming up.

Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett lament leaving Rajon Rondo behind - ESPN Boston

"Right now, he's injured and I told him this is probably going to be the toughest year of your whole career, mentally and physically," said Pierce. "Physically, you're dealing with an injury. Mentally, you know nothing but winning since you came into the league... You may be put in a situation where you may not win a lot of games. You have to be a leader now, you know me and Kev are not there anymore. "You have to go through these times. I've been through them. I explained to him how I went through it. I feel like, I'm one of the best players in the league and now... [Rondo is] going to be in that situation for maybe one year or two years, who knows? But you have to be mentally prepared for it, and that's some of the things we talked about."

Seems like a great message and one that I hope Rondo takes heed of.