Leaving the Celtics and signing with Heat in 2012 was the first of a series of dominoes for Ray Allen. Boston is currently welcoming a complete rebuild this season. After Allen’s departure from their team, the Celtics finally decided to get Doc River’s to move to the Clippers and traded Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry to the Nets. Allen injured his knee to Rajon Rondo.
These decisions made a lot of sense for all the parties. Boston got a fresh start, Rivers got a strong team to run and the former Celtic player got to write one final chapter in his career on a loaded Brooklyn roster.
The only glitch in the story is that Pierce and Garnett weren’t too kind when Allen decided to make a move from Boston to Miami. This fuelled the Celtics/Heat rivalry at the expense of the ex-teammate.
Lebron James is indebted to Ray Allen for the rest of his life after the game 6 miracle. He has made it clear that he still remembers what the former Celtic told about his teammate.
James, who left Cleveland for Miami pointed out the hypocrisy in the criticism of Allen. “I thought, ‘Wow! Ray was criticized for leaving Boston, and now these guys are going the same as well’”, James said.
“That’s the nature of our business, man. I don’t know what Boston was going through at the end of the day. I know Ray had to make the best decision for him and his family and his career. Doc, KG and Paul did that as well. You can’t criticize someone who does something that’s best for their family.”
The anger towards Allen arose from the fact that he took less money to play for Miami. If he had made an intelligent move to another team in the Western Conference, he would have gotten away with all the bad-mouthing.
With almost a year of hindsight, Garnett, Rivers and Pierce look like a group of guys who finally realized that the others would expect them to swallow their anger, their pride of being a Celtic and learn a lesson from the best in the league.