In case you haven't heard former NBA Player Rodney Rogers Crashed his ATV and was left paralyzed from the Shoulders Down.
Midway through the 2002 season, the Celtics decided it was a bright idea to their rookie 6 foot 7 guard that they selected with the #10 pick in the draft. Why? They wanted to make a run at the weak Eastern Conference and needed some veteran help to give them a chance. So they packaged up Joe Johnson (now his 4th straight year 20+) for Tony Delk and Rodney Rogers. At the time it seemed like a move desperate to get the Celtics into a 2nd place position (because no East team had a shot against any West team) but Johnson wasn't doing much and at least it would give you some excitement in the postseason.That version of the Celtics consisted of the dynamic duo of Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker, with Kenny Anderson at the point, tough Eric Williams fightin downlow, Tony Brickhands Battie, and of course Walta. It was a team that in most years wouldn't sniff the conference finals in most years, but again this was the early 2000s eastern conference of shit. Rodney provided the team two things they didn't have prior. A physical body down low who could take some of the pounding at the 4 that Antoine and even Williams could not. He also created massive matchup problems on the offensive end thanks to shooting the triple.
The Celtics made the playoffs as the #3 seed in the East and dispatched both the 76ers and Pistons (ugliest series ever) in 5 games. Rodney was never great and never the full reason they won a game but he was always a solid contributor. Then in the conference finals the Celtics went down to the Nets in 6 games losing games 4,5 and 6. Rodney had his best game when he scored 20 points on 6-9 shooting including 4-5 from behind the arc, but it didn't matter thanks to the miserable shooting of Antoine. He finished the postseason averaging 9 points, 5.5 boards, and 2 assists with a player efficiency rating of 17.3. It was evident that while Rogers wasn't a superstar by any means, he was a solid role player and overall contributor and I had started to take a liking to his banging down low on defense and popping from deep on offense.
And then came the offseason with Rodney Rogers a free agent. The Nets offered more money than the Celtics and as simple as that he was gone. 44 games in Green with 16 of them coming in the playoffs, a playoffs where he was rated only behind Pierce in player efficiency. I liked Rodney for a few months and then he was gone.
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