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As usual, Rajon Rondo is deadpanning his way through a big moment.

 

Just as he rarely watched the NBA prior to joining the league (his favorite sport was football, and his favorite athlete was Brett Favre), he said he hasn’t thought a lot about international basketball, and the greater meaning of taking part in last week’s USA Basketball camp in Las Vegas, where the goal was to have secured a place on the roster by the time the world championships begin in Turkey next month.

 

“It’s the same deal,” he said, drawing a parallel between now and how he once felt about the NBA. “I’m playing with a lot of good athletes, and I have to seize the moment.”

 

What he doesn’t acknowledge is that it could actually happen. The Celtics guard could play his next meaningful game in Istanbul on Aug. 28, when the tournament begins.

 

After only two days of practice last week, Jerry Colangelo, chairman of USA Basketball, noticed Rondo do one thing that the national team always needs: He took charge.

 

After winning the NBA title in his second season, and developing the nerve to boss around Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, Rondo seems perfectly at home with Mike Krzyzewski on the bench and stars such as Kevin Durant and Lamar Odom on the floor.

 

“He has a lot of leaderships qualities, and that’s important, because this is a new group,” Colangelo said of Rondo. “The one veteran (point guard) we have is Chauncey (Billups), and the rest are new guys, so that’s something we really need.”

Yes, Rondo isn’t simply fulfilling a courtesy call.

 

“He projects very well. We’re very high on him,” Colangelo said last week. “His career has really blossomed, and his confidence level has improved big time.

 

“It’s early in the week, but we love what we have seen from him. He makes a lot of plays. We’ve already lost a couple of big guys (David Lee, Robin Lopez, Amar’e Stoudemire), so I guess we’re going to have to be athletic. . . . We’re going to be very guard-heavy. So Rajon is absolutely in the mix.”

 

That said, in terms of Olympic years, Rondo is still in kindergarten.

 

One reason he is under consideration now is because the bigger names - and until further notice, there is still a group ahead of him in USA Basketball that includes A-listers Deron Williams, Chris Paul and maybe still Jason Kidd - typically don’t play halfway through the Olympic cycle. Billups is the exception this time around.

 

Rondo seemed to realize that when he said, “I think it’s still a little early to be talking about whether I’ll ever play in the Olympics.”

 

If he ever made the cut for the 2012 London Games, it would be because he is as good or better than the above group, in addition to the point guards in camp in Las Vegas last week - Billups, Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook and Tyreke Evans.

 

By 2012 perhaps even John Wall will demand consideration. After years of drought, the NBA has been flooded by pure point guards.

 

By 2016 Rondo will be 30. Perhaps that is a more realistic Olympiad to target. Many NBA players seem to appreciate the meaning of the Olympics once the sand starts to run out.

 

But even for a player as supremely skilled as Rondo, it’s not an easy goal.

 

He would be just the second Celtic behind Larry Bird to play in the Olympics. Bird, of course, was a member of the original Dream Team in 1992 in Barcelona - the first Olympiad that allowed professional basketball players. Garnett played in the 2000 Olympics as a member of the Timberwolves. Pierce, whose only national team duty was marred by a U.S. collapse in the 2002 world championships, never made it that far. Injury, a lingering bad rap and Pierce’s own distaste from his 2002 experience kept him from playing in the 2006 world championships.

 

Rondo, though, has been driving in the express lane since he was a rookie. He’s not in the same club with Paul and Williams, though based on sheer will, self-belief and one of the most unique skill sets in the game, he’s not far behind.

 

That’s one reason Colangelo doesn’t sound concerned now about Rondo’s much-chronicled weakness - shooting. Though the international game rewards teams with range, Rondo has other ways to thrive.

 

“The thing about our team is that we have athletes,” Colangelo said. “He’s not the only one with that (problem). But what I would say is that this is a great opportunity for him to continue working on his shot, and this will be a kind of laboratory for the team.

 

“If you have an open shot, we want you to take it,” he said. “That’s just the way we play. You can never have enough shooters, and maybe one or two in this camp can make it because of that.”

 

But he doesn’t discount Rondo, who, in turn, merely shrugs at a question of what this opportunity can do for him.

“Maybe globally - maybe it does something that way for me,” he said. “I just never really thought about it.”