Boston Celtics: the C’s 5 greatest villains from the 2010s

The C’s villain who betrayed: Ray Allen

Everyone loves to talk about how crazy it was that Kevin Durant left Oklahoma City to join Golden State, a team that had just won 73 games the year before and who he had just blown a 3-1 lead against in the Western Conference Finals.

It certainly was crazy, but in some ways Ray Allen leaving the Boston Celtics to join the Miami Heat after the 2012 season was crazier.

Obviously, Durant leaving had a bigger impact on the league given how much better of a player he is than Allen. However, with KD, there were always signs that the partnership with Russell Westbrook was never great for both sides, and it’s not like he had ever won a title in OKC. On the other hand, Allen did win a championship with the shamrocks, and it always seemed like they were a close-knit group.

On top of all that, he left to join the very team Boston had just lost to in the Eastern Conference Finals to accept a bench role.

There was bad blood between the Celtics and Heat which was rooted back to their own rivalry with LeBron (more on this later) when he was in Cleveland. Watching Ray Allen abandon teammates he had won a championship with to come off the bench for THAT team, specifically, hurt so freaking much.

The beef between Ray Allen and his former Celtics teammates continued to go on after his run with Miami ended. According to the Boston Globe, when Rajon Rondo was asked about some excerpts from Ray Allen’s new book that painted the former Celtics point guard in a negative light with stories like Rondo claiming he carried the team to the 2008 championship or Doc Rivers not wanting to trade Rondo to New Orleans because he didn’t want him to play for Monty Williams (New Orleans’ coach at the time and Doc’s friend), Rondo said, “Obviously, that man is hurting.”

Rondo also said:

"“I don’t know if it’s financially, I don’t know if it’s mentally. He wants to stay relevant. I am who I am.  I don’t try to be something I’m not. I can’t say the same for him. He’s looking for attention. I’m a better human being than that. I take accountability for my actions. Certain [stuff] happens in my life, I man up. But he has a whole other agenda.”"

These quotes don’t really indicate a strong friendship between the two, to say the least. Ray leaving pretty much marked the end to that period of Celtics basketball as Boston lost in the first round of the playoffs in 2013 which was followed up by Pierce and Garnett getting traded in the offseason.

There was no revenge had.

The betrayal essentially ended the Big Three era in Boston.