Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Messy breakup
Celtics still sore at Ray Allen’s departure for Heat.
MIAMI — If nothing else, the Miami Heat have shown a resilience when it comes to moving forward from their most recent championship era. The Boston Celtics? Not so much.
Given the forum Monday of TNT’s “Area 21” studio to reflect on their 2008 NBA championship and the ensuing breakup that included Ray Allen leaving to pursue what turned into a 2013 title with the Heat, Allen’s former teammates strongly criticized the 3-point legend.
On a reunion panel that included TNT regular Kevin Garnett as well as former 2008 championship Celtics Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo, Kendrick Perkins and Glen “Big Baby” Davis, the five addressed the decision not to include Allen in their plans for a 10-year championship reunion.
“It almost felt like you’re married and you come home and the wife and the kids and the clothes and everything is out the house, you didn’t get a note or nothing,” Pierce said of Allen’s decision to spurn a larger contract from the Celtics to join LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh with the Heat only weeks after the Heat had eliminated the
Celtics from the playoffs.
“You didn’t get an Instagram or tweet or nothing. They just gone. Like, man, that’s wrong.”
The focus of the panel was that the Celtics were still built to contend, having grown particularly close amid the playoff struggles that followed that 2008 title, stressing Allen did not consult with teammates about his decision to depart.
“People don’t understand that this is real life for us,” Garnett said. “The situation with Ray is very sensitive. And I think that when we all talked about doing this reunion tour, we were talking about guys we consider loyal and part of this group.
“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 to him. And that’s it. It wasn’t no other Wizards. It wasn’t no other Spurs. It wasn’t no other Heat. It was all Celtics invited to this.”
Garnett since went on to play with the Brooklyn Nets and Minnesota Timberwolves; Pierce with the Nets, Washington Wizards and Los Angeles Clippers; Davis with the Orlando Magic and Clippers; and Rondo with the Dallas Mavericks, Sacramento Kings and now, as the lone remaining active member of Monday’s quintet, with the Chicago Bulls. The contention is those moves and trades were precipitated by Allen beginning the Celtics’ breakout.
While former Celtics and current Clippers coach Doc Rivers joined the five players on a monitor via a long-distance hookup to discuss their time together, Rivers was not part of the discussion about Allen. Rivers had reduced Allen’s role in favor of emerging guard Avery Bradley before Allen left.
“I don’t know how his relationship was with Doc — it was kind of souring at the time because of Avery was getting more minutes — and so I can understand all that,” Pierce said, “but I just felt like we should have had a conversation. I think it would have settled over a little bit more. I don’t think we would have been as salty.
“Even though it was Miami … we hated Miami, and that was our rival we going at it with them, LeBron, all of them — I just think if we had all just kind of talked about it, it would have been a little different than it is now.”
Allen has largely remained out of the fray, save for a Facebook post Tuesday morning showing a photo of him tangling with Rondo during a game and the words: “The power to push limits.” Mostly, Allen has continued with postbasketball pursuits, including his organic restaurant in Miami and his role on the board of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, recently chronicling on social media his trip to the Nazi death camp in Birkenau, Poland, with a poignant essay on Instagram.
Davis reflected on how Allen’s departure played out, and with whom.
“’When you build a strong relationship with a group of guys and it’s bigger than self, meaning that the fact that it’s bigger than self, what we did will always stick with us,” he said. “And you owe us at least, ‘Hey, bro, I’m outta here.’ Or, ‘Hey, I’m on to the next.’ Me and Perk had to leave on our own. We didn’t want to leave, but we had to leave.
“I would say, ‘Hey, know that it’s over with here first, before you go over there and jump on the bandwagon, ring-hopping and doing and all that.’ I understand you want to win a ring, but we still believed in ourselves and we still believed that we could win.” Perkins said the next step belongs to Allen. The Celtics’ front office, however, said Allen will be invited to the team’s 10th-year championship anniversary commemoration next season.
“Who’s going to break the ice? And at this point in time, I don’t think it’s on nobody on here to break the ice,” Perkins said of Monday’s assembled panel in TNT’s Atlanta studio. “I actually think it’s on Ray to break the ice. If Ray wants to make amends with anybody up here, whatever the case, I think it’s on him to reach out.”
Allen became a free agent following the Heat’s loss to the San Antonio Spurs in the 2014 NBA Finals, fielding overtures from several teams, including James’ Cleveland Cavaliers, before deciding to remain in retirement.
James left the Heat as a free agent in the 2014 offseason, with Wade departing as a free agent for the Bulls last summer. Unlike with that breakup or even the Heat’s breakup following the team’s 2006 championship, former players have remained close to their ex-teammates, with Shaquille O’Neal’s No. 32 retired by the Heat this past season and members of that title team and the 2012 and ‘13 Heat title teams often reuniting in South Florida.
Despite Monday’s harsh rhetoric, Garnett ended Monday’s segment saying, “We have no ill will to Ray.”