Its been known for some time now that Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and the rest of the 2008 Celtics team arent crazy about Ray Allen. The rift began in 2012 when Allen left Boston to join LeBron James and Dwayne Wade with the Heat, essentially going from one Big Three to the next.
The fact that the Heat knocked out the Celtics in back-to-back years before Allen left didnt help, either.
Now, with several former Celtics players from the championship squad reuniting, everyones asking about Allens whereabouts. The fact of the matter is he wasnt invited to join his former teammates on a reunion tour, of sorts, and Kevin Garnett explained on Monday night why that is.
Everybodys asking us, Wheres Ray? Garnett said on his TNT segment, Area 21. People dont understand that this is real life for us, and the situation with Ray is very sensitive. I think when we all talked about doing this reunion tour, we talked about guys we consider loyal and part of this group. Just being honest, my two cents, man, when Ray decided to go to the Heat, I felt like he moved on. And he went to pursue another ring, and he got another ring. Shout out to him. And thats it. It wasnt no other Wizards, it wasnt no other Spurs, it wasnt no other Heat it was all Celtics invited to this.
Is that a reasonable explanation? People will have different opinions on it all, but its a bit unfair for the Celtics to completely exclude Allen from it all, considering what happened in the years after he left.
Garnett and Paul Pierce were traded to the Nets one year after Allen joined the Heat, hoping to create what they had with the Celtics in Brooklyn. That only lasted a year before Pierce signed with the Wizards and Garnett was traded to the Timberwolves during the 2014-15 season.
I suppose the band could have stuck together for longer if Allen stayed, but the Celtics were disassembled one year after his departure.
I was initially hurt by the whole way everything went down, Pierce said. Like, I dont have no beef with none of my teammates or nothing. I was just hurt [by] how it went down.
We all came together, we talked about it, we talked every day, we hung out all the time. And then when it was time for free agency and to each his own in free agency but I thought we formed a brotherhood here in Boston and just how we carried ourselves not only on the court but off it. Thats what I was hurt by, when Ray didnt just at least give us a heads up about it.
AP
Pierce continued by saying now its uncomfortable and that he hasnt talked to Allen in years. Because of that fact, its easy to see why he wasnt invited to the reunion party. It certainly would have been awkward.
That being said, someones going to have to break the ice if they hope to mend the relationship with Allen. It just wont be Garnett, Pierce or Kendrick Perkins doing that.
At this point in time, I dont think its on nobody on here to break the ice. I actually think its on Ray to break the ice, Perkins said. If Ray want to make amends with anybody up here, or whatever the case, I think its on him to reach out and say, Hey, P, I handled this wrong. We better than this. Hey, Ticket, I handled this wrong. Hey, Big Baby, I handled this wrong. Hey Rondo, I handled this wrong. And just get it past us. We won games together.
We may never see the trio of Garnett, Pierce and Allen together again, which is a bit disappointing because they were so much fun to watch in their hay day.
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