BOSTON -- It is not enough for the Heat to take down the Celtics in this series, if that's possible. In the process, they must also take something from the Celtics, again, if that's possible.

Eliminating a team with two conference titles in three years is hard enough. Learning from that same team, the lessons of how to rule the East, and how to keep focused for 48 minutes, and how never to quiver in tough times and also ignoring pain? That might be harder.

The Celtics don't make it look simple, either way. From the pride of Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, the persistence of Ray Allen and most vividly the grimace of Rajon Rondo, these Celtics will not die or give away their secrets easily. For a team slapped together over a summer, that considers Boston a "big brother" and is still trying to figure out this championship business, this is an experience the Heat should and must soak up while they can.

"We're trying to take down a champion," said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, "and it'll be the toughest thing we ever do."

Remember that infamous scene in The Godfather following Don Corleone's death, that instantly propelled Michael to become the Godfather of the Mafia?

Well if you don't, your missing out on a special movie. Fortunately for you, though, that exact scene has been reinvented, but this time in the form of Rajon Rondo and the Boston Celtics.

Two years ago, if you were to tell me that Rajon Rondo would become one of the most recognized point guards in the game today, I would have laughed in your face with such intensity that anyone would have thought I had gone completely mad.

"There's no way Rajon Rondo will outdo Derrick Rose," stated most people, and unfortunately for Boston fans I tended to agree.

Now though, the tides have changed, and quite frankly they've changed for the better. For those out there that predicted Rajon Rondo's rise to fame, I suggest you become a fortune teller, because you've done a damn good job of going against the grain and predicting something that most people felt was simply impossible.

A couple of weeks ago, the day after the Celtics won Game 2 of their series against the Cavs in Cleveland, I spent a couple of hours hanging out with Celtics PG Rajon Rondo. Doc Rivers had given the Celts a day off, but instead of me going up to Boston to see Rondo, I only had to travel as far as 57th Street here in Manhattan; with a day to kill, Rondo had stopped in New York City for the day to attend the premiere of Just Wright, in which he has a cameo.

I met up with Rondo in the lobby of the Four Seasons, where he was crashing for the day, and where he was hanging out post-lunch, rocking a white t-shirt, jeans and pair of red Vans. He also had on a pair of customized Celtics headphones with the word “UBUNTU” printed on the side. We went up to his suite and, with TV One playing the background, we talked for a while, about basketball, about life, about how he got to where he is today, about playing with the Big Three, and a lot about fame and how he’s been received and perceived.