Rajon Rondo welcomes children to a Connect Four demolition (Brian Babineau/ Getty).

Even as he sits out the rest of the season with a torn ACL, Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo remains one of the most interesting characters in the NBA. At times, he appears as one giant anthropomorphized eccentricity. He's more into roller-skating than anyone since 1982, dresses like a Dick Tracy villain, and plays basketball in a style that inverts the court.

One of Rondo's most peculiar qualities is his love of Connect Four, the tic-tac-toe-ish board game meant for kids 7 and up. He's a whiz at the game, and he's proud of it. In a new profile for Sports Illustrated, Lee Jenkins delves into Rondo's mastery of the game. The piece isn't online yet, but Andrew Sharp of SB Nation has the relevant portions:

Mark Cuban and Kobe Bryant share a sweaty hug (MCT via Getty Images).

It's now a well-known fact that the NBA's new collective bargaining agreement restricts the ability of franchises to employ more than two very high-paid players at once. For all but a few teams, the future will likely not involve the kind of three-star super-teams that became popular when LeBron James chose the Miami Heat in 2010.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was one of the first owners to realize this new reality, and in the compressed, post-lockout offseason of 2011 he opted not to overpay to reassemble the team that won the NBA title the previous June. Cuban's plan backfired when he couldn't sign a second, younger superstar to pair with Dirk Nowitzki, but his logic was sound. With this new CBA, an owner better be sure a long-term contract is worth it.

As a knowledgeable observer of NBA finances, Cuban has recognized the considerable payroll of the Los Angeles Lakers, now surging up the West standings at 26-29. With three players making $19 million or more per season and several others making considerable sums, the Lakers will have important decisions to make if they want to avoid a sizable luxury tax hit.

[Also: Former NBA lottery pick refuses to leave trashed, foreclosed home]

So, ever the concerned owner, Cuban has suggested that the Lakers consider using the NBA's amnesty clause on Kobe Bryant. From Tim McMahon for ESPNDallas.com (via SLAM):

It's hard to imagine now, but from 1974 to 1984 the city of Milwaukee — or Burbank's approximation of it — was one of the most popular locations for TV comedy. "Happy Days" was the most popular, of course, but there was also its spinoff "Laverne & Shirley," a tale of two young women (NBA superfan Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams) and the funny situations of their lives. These days, the series exists primarily in syndication on the local independent channels that basic cable rendered irrelevant.

Like these two women, Milwaukee Bucks guards Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings are an outgoing duo looking to take this city by storm. So, with that in mind, the NBA produced a special video of Ellis and Jennings highlights set to "Laverne & Shirley"'s classic theme song. While we don't get to listen to Monta say "Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!" this is still pretty excellent.

Reggie and Derrick Rose hang with Vinny Del Negro at a press conference in 2008 (MCT via Getty Images).

Like many teams, the Chicago Bulls stood pat at Thursday's trade deadline, avoiding a cloudy financial future in the hopes that better, less risky opportunities will come along soon. Unlike other teams, the Bulls know they'll add an All-NBA player to their lineup by the beginning of next season. Whenever Derrick Rose returns from rehabilitating the torn ACL that has kept him out of this entire season, the Bulls will regain one of the league's top players.

The timing of Rose's return is still uncertain — all we really know is that he's participating in five-on-five drills in practices and will only play in games when he thinks he's absolutely ready. From all indications, Rose and the Bulls are on the same page.

However, on Thursday, one important member of Rose's camp expressed frustration with the Bulls' inactivity on the trade market. Reggie Rose, the star's brother and a very important advisor to his career and life, thinks the Bulls haven't tried hard enough to build a champion. From Scott Powers for ESPNChicago.com:

J.J. Redick chats with Anthony Johnson, patron saint of bad trade deadlines (Fernando Medina/ Getty).

The 2013 NBA trade deadline has passed, and it was not particularly exciting. After weeks of rumors and speculation, we have been left with a handful of deals unlikely to make much difference to the postseason.

Yes, the Milwaukee Bucks added J.J. Redick in the hopes of shoring up their spot near the end of the East playoffs, the Boston Celtics added a high-volume shooter in Jordan Crawford instead of standing pat, and a bunch of other teams rearranged their finances by swapping human beings for minor assets and "considerations." The big names, like Josh Smith, went nowhere.

The deadline was a little anticlimactic, then, and should go down as a relatively meaningless sequence of events in NBA history. But was it the worst ever? After the jump, check out the five dullest deadlines since 1987.

At All-Star Weekend, Charlotte Bobcats rookie wing Michael Kidd-Gilchrist attracted attention after admitting that Michael Jordan, his franchise's owner and the greatest basketball player ever, had beaten him in a game of one-on-one. While it's not as if MKG lost to an owner like Senator Herb Kohl or James Dolan, it's still pretty embarrassing for a 19-year-old to lose to a man who just turned 50. After this news, Kidd-Gilchrist needed to regain some pride.

On Wednesday night, MKG did just that with one of the best dunks of the NBA season. With roughly three minutes left in the fourth quarter and the Bobcats down 96-93 to the Detroit Pistons, Gerald Henderson drove to the basket and drew two Pistons defenders under the basket. They foiled the attack, and Henderson could only make an off-balance pass back to an open Kidd-Gilchrist near the three-point line. With three seconds left on the shot clock, MKG furiously attacked the rim and exploded on Pistons big man Greg Monroe for a full posterization. Check out the video above courtesy of our colleagues at the Yahoo! Sports Minute.

Gordon Hayward and Al Jefferson celebrate the existence of waffles (Streeter Lecka/ Getty).

In the last few years, it has become standard practice for NBA franchises to bestow gifts upon their season ticket holders. The era of one-to-one transactions of money for tickets is long gone. Teams now show their appreciation with keepsakes, doodads, and whatsits, small tokens of gratitude for people who spend their hard-earned money to support a team that's usually not a title contender.

Typically, these items are pretty unimpressive: a miniature basketball, a bag, a thermos, a mousepad, etc. The Utah Jazz, though, have gone above and beyond expectations with their latest gift. From the team's official statement (via The Salt Lake Tribune's Jazz blog):

As one of the disappointing cornerstones of the Brooklyn Nets, Joe Johnson has received his fair share of negative criticism this season, and not just after being dragged into ridiculous arguments about LeBron James. Yet, despite his 42.7 percent mark from the field and a PER of 14.6, Johnson has had a flair for the dramatic in his first season as a Net, hitting several game-winners to help the team to a 32-22 record. If nothing else, he's made sure that a few of his less-than-stellar games haven't ended in defeat.

On Tuesday night, Johnson added two more big shots to that ledger. With the Nets down 105-102 to the Milwaukee Bucks and 6.7 seconds left on the clock, Johnson threw an inbounds pass to Deron Williams, ran off a Reggie Evans screen around the free throw line, and received the pass back from Williams at the top of the three-point arc. He elevated for the shot in time to beat a late-closing Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, and tied the game with 1.3 seconds left. With no timeouts, the Bucks' Brandon Jennings could only manage a desperation heave at the buzzer, and the two teams went to overtime.

Johnson wasn't finished. After the jump, check out his OT buzzer-beater to give the Nets the win.