During a March 2014 game in Boston, the Golden State Warriors called a side out-of-bounds play they’d randomly named “C Up,” which they hadn’t used in a game in months. Despite the obscure nature of the play call, then-Warriors assistant coach Darren Erman looked out onto the TD Garden floor and saw Boston defender Rajon Rondo directing his Celtics teammates on exactly what the Warriors were about to do. Somehow – perhaps from extensive video study, perhaps due to his uncanny, photographic memory – Rondo knew the play.
“We hadn’t run ‘C Up’ in 30 games, so there was no way it was on their scouting report or any way he could’ve (reasonably) known about it,” Erman said.