Well here’s a conversation that keeps coming up in NBA locker rooms after the whole Kevin Love and LeBron James not being friends drama which was over blown. Paul Pierce dropped a bombshell about Pierce and Ray Allen not necessarily being the best of friends off the court during their time in Boston.
One of the memorable championship teams the 2007-2008 Boston Celtics after Garnett and Allen joining longtime Celtic Paul Pierce in Boston they immediately became the Championship favorite and rightfully so.
The team traveled to Rome in the off season which Kevin Garnett described as the best thing to happen to that championship team. It helped build chemistry and helped players get more familiar with one another.
Clearly what The Celtics built on the court from a chemistry standpoint was something special Paul Pierce was media gold Tuesday night talking a little bit about his time with All Star Shooting Guard Ray Allen.
Following from Jackie MacMullan of ESPN.
Pierce still engages in group texts with former Celtics teammates (and coach) Doc Rivers, Garnett, Kendrick Perkins and Big Baby Davis, but hasn’t talked to Ray Allen since he bolted from Boston to Miami in the summer of 2012.
Though much has been made of it, Pierce said, people don’t understand he wasn’t all that close to Allen to begin with.
“It was a weird relationship,” Pierce conceded. “We were all good friends on the court, but Ray always did his own thing. That’s just the way Ray was. Even when we were playing together, we’d be having a team dinner and Ray wouldn’t show up. We’d go to his charity events but Ray wouldn’t show up to somebody else’s.
“I called him on it. I said, ‘Man, Ray, we support all your stuff but when we ask you, you don’t come to ours.’ I remember when Rondo re-signed with Boston, we had a little dinner at a restaurant and Ray didn’t show up.
“I know Ray probably didn’t like Rondo that much, but it wasn’t a fact of not liking somebody. You don’t have to like everybody you play with — it’s a matter of showing support.
“Rondo probably didn’t like Ray either, but he came to Ray’s functions to show, ‘Hey, we’re together in this.’
“It’s not a bad thing with Ray. We had a great relationship on the court. But even the year we won it, after a game we’d say, ‘Let’s go have something to eat and have a night with the older guys.’ We’d get there and it would be me, Kevin and Sam (Cassell), but no Ray. In a lot of ways, me, Sam and Kevin were our Big Three.
“It just got to the point where it was, ‘That’s Ray.’ No hard feelings. Everyone made such a big deal of us not talking after we left, but there really wasn’t much there.”
Pierce’s comments surprise me because of how fairly recent this was, but it does not surprise me that yet again some NBA players on the same roster aren’t the best of friends.
We’ve seen Kobe and Shaq win rings together and not be the best of friends, Jordan got into quite a few fights with his own teammates, and now Pierce with Ray Allen.
Obviously Pierce and Allen does not seem to be the same level as the first two mentioned, but it does prove a point winning will silence all the noise and just how great of veteran leadership this Celtics team had in particular.
It’s no secret Rondo wasn’t the easiest personality to get along with but Pierce, Garnett, and Doc Rivers kept him in check.
This Celtics team is further proof that you don’t need to be best friends with one another off the court and that’s fairly obvious.
It’s about how certain players gel on the court and that each player steps up when called upon which is the main reason why The Boston Celtics fought the uphill battle in what may have been Paul Pierce’s only championship ring, but one of the most memorable seasons in NBA history.
Cleveland has faced some of the same scrutiny in recent weeks after Kevin Love stated him and LeBron aren’t the closest of friends off the court in an interview which shocked quite a few. However this team has won 50+ games and locked up the second seed once again proving it’s not all about friendships off the court, but what you build on the court now its time to see if Cleveland can do the same thing Boston did in 2008 to reach the one goal of a championship.
