My memory of watching it live:
Rondo pretty clearly was creeping up the sideline before he released the ball.
You can see it on that nba feed, as well (it may or may not be the CSN feed) - he creeps along the baseline, looking downcourt, then steps up the baseline with his left foot before dropping the ball awkwardly to Collison. It was stupid of him not to just inbound the ball, and his mental peculiarities are hard to defend this year, after this incident and the previous double-tech inbounding incident.
It doesn;t mean he shouldn;t be re-signed - it means that he should be talked to, and asked what is going on, why he's screwing around so much, and he'd better be convincing when saying he wouldn;t pull this crap in a serious season during serious games. I don;t think he would be pulling this crap if the front office didn't torpedo the season by not getting rid of Karl either during the off-season or at All-Star break. This was a wasted season, all the players knew it, and Rondo is the kind of personality type that has to be fully engaged in the competitive endeavor or else he will demonstrate negative behaviors.
That all said, the ref demonstrated the exact kind of behavior that the league has been punishing their refs for, and have repeatedly stated they don;t want them doing - injecting themselves into the game.
The ref had NO BUSINESS making that call, since the two others who's responsibility it was chose to let that little violation go.
The ref very clearly was having no business with letting Rondo get away with ANY violation, no matter how small or unimportant.
This shows an unbalanced, personal bias of the ref which I would predict would be mentioned/reprimanded by the league (privately, of course, since they never reveal internal disciplinary ref actions).
But after looking at that clip for the 5th time, I noticed something weird - the two guys closest to the coaches in the front row are out-and-out laughing with glee when Demarcus is reacting to getting the tech.
Those two guys, who are either involved with the team, or have THE MOST PREMIER SEATS IN THE ENTIRE ARENA, are openly deriving much pleasure at Demarcus getting screwed by a biased ref's collateral damage.