Ray Allen opens up about his fallout with the Boston Celtics

Is there still bad-blood between Ray Allen and some of his old Boston Celtics teammates?

Ray Allen called into Boston’s own WEEI’s Ordway, Merloni, & Fauria’s radio show on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the 2008 Boston Celtics championship season and his relationships with some of his former teammates.

Even though it has been seven years since Allen left “Title Town” to join LeBron James and the rival Miami Heat, it’s still not ‘water under the bridge’ between the Hall of Famer and some of his former teammates.

As a young fan watching from afar during this time, it was pretty evident that Allen was becoming unhappy in Boston. There was some anger and hatred in the Celtics locker room, which was being fueled by rumors and over-sized egos.

After winning the championship in ‘08, there was without a doubt internal issues for the Boston Celtics. Allen observed and noticed that point guard Rajon Rondo was looking him off during designed plays specifically for Allen, even though many would argue the shooting guard is the best shooter of all time.

During Allen’s final season with the Boston Celtics, he noticed some disconnect between him and the organization. It resulted in Allen going to coach Doc Rivers’ office to address some of the situations that have become apparent during that time. Here’s a quote from Ray Allen in his memoir “From the Outside”:

"“So let me see if I got this straight. You want to pay me less money. You want to bring me off the bench. You want to continue to run the offense around Rondo. Now tell me again exactly why I would want to sign this contract?”– Ray Allen"

Let’s not forget that the Celtics offered Allen a 2-year, $12 million contract and informed him he would be taking on a lesser role, which Allen took as a slap in the face. In five seasons with the Celtics, Allen averaged 16.7 points per game along with a career high .409 three-point shooting percentage.

You rarely see a player join the rival or enemy team, but in this case, Ray Allen did just that. When asked about the fallout with his Celtics teammates and some of the comments that have been made of his name, he respectively answered the question:

"“Well, I’ll tell you what. It’s nothing personal, but it was disheartening when I left. I would speak when I needed to speak, but I didn’t speak up enough to where people listened and paid attention to me, and it took me for granted.I often felt like I was taken for granted in this situation. When I left it was a shame of what was said about me, and it almost seemed like people were speaking out of anger, and I didn’t have any anger or animosity towards anybody.It seemed like the team didn’t want to continue with the way I was helping and contributing. We’re still brothers let’s move forward from this. But unfortunately those guys had other agendas. The interesting thing about Big Baby and Kendrick Perkins making comments on the show is that they weren’t even on the team in 2011.”– Ray Allen on WEEI’s Ordway, Merloni, & Fauria show"

After listening to this interview, and reminiscing of Allen’s time in Boston, I started thinking about how the Celtics as an organization, team, and fan base handled this entire situation. I completely agree with Allen when he says he felt like he was taken for granted. As previously mentioned, Allen is arguably the best shooter of all time… how do you take that for granted?

Also, in the interview with WEEI, Allen would go on to mention how if the Boston Celtics were able to have gotten Kevin Durant during free agency that he would’ve considered making a return to basketball and the Boston Celtics.

"“It’s a thing of the past. I talked to Danny maybe two years ago and told him this was my last effort. This was when Kevin Durant was a free agent and thinking about going to Boston. I told them if they land Kevin, I’d come back again.” – Ray Allen on WEEI’s Ordwar, Merloni, & Fauria show"

Realistically, the Boston Celtics could have gone to the NBA Finals all of the five years Ray Allen was on the team. Now that he is retired and enshrined in the NBA Hall of Fame, I hope Celtics fans understand that Allen was a key component in their championship season back in 2008.