The Celtics Are Being Petty As Hell When It Comes To Ray Allen And I Love Them For It
(Boston.com) - Ray Allen won an NBA championship and was a three-time NBA All-Star as a member of the Celtics’ “Big Three”, but his departure to Miami as a free agent after the 2012 season “will have some impact” on the decision to raise his No. 20 to the TD Garden rafters, according to Danny Ainge.
Ainge, appearing on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Toucher and Rich” on Wednesday, said that he is still friendly with Allen, but while he “no longer holds any grudge against Allen […] that’s not the exact same feeling of everybody in the organization.”
Ever since the news came out that Kevin Garnett was going to have his number retired in the rafters for the rest of eternity, the question immediately became what the hell was this team going to do with Ray Allen. Pierce is up there, KG is going to be up there largely because of the culture shift and title he helped win, but the same was true for Ray Allen. Ray was an awesome Celtic and they do not win that title without him. That's a fact. But it's a complicated issue given how their relationship ended, and from the sounds of it the ownership group is still being petty about how everything went down.
With this whole topic, I fully accept that I am being a gigantic hypocrite by saying I don't want Ray Allen's number retired given how he left. I understand the Celtics tried to trade him all the time and then gave him a lowball offer, but the facts are he took less money to go play with LeBron and your biggest rival at the time. I love that Wyc (it's definitely Wyc) still holds a grudge all these years. Shit the players probably still hate him for what he did. It's petty, it's childish, it's maybe a little pathetic, but goddammit I love it. How could you not love a good grudge? It's been 8 years since that all went down so if you can't respect a good grudge when you see one I dunno what to tell ya. I love that this pisses them off as much as it did the rest of us. It hurt them like it hurt us.
Plus, that's Gordon's number now. Seeing as how I desperately want him to sign a new deal to stay in Boston, I'm willing to cater to his wishes and desire to wear #20 over raising Ray's number to the rafters. If Hayward commits moving forward I say #20 should go to the player who showed he wants to be here, not someone who left to go team up with LeBron.
Again, I know this makes me a hypocrite, but I don't really care. It's what I feel in my heart and Wyc clearly agrees with me and anyone else who thinks it should only be KG and Paul. If we're being honest I never in a million years thought this would ever be the reality of the Big 3 when they first joined forces. I was certain they would win multiple rings and find themselves next to each other next to the other all time Celtics greats. It's sad that it has to be this way, but that's life.