Ray Allen vs Rajon Rondo: Why do we still care?

Why are we still talking about this?

On Monday’s Celtics Stuff Live, veteran podcasters, Justin Poulin and Jon Duke, rehash their disdain for Ray Allen.

Well, who isn’t rehashing this topic in New England lately?

Many will say that Ray did this to himself (again) by drawing attention to a drama that’s becoming more over played then the Kardashians.

First the feud with his teammates. Then the exodus to Miami. Next up, the public statements about Rajon Rondo. The plot got deeper when Ray and Paul Pierce met up in China and seemed to mend fences.

On Paul Pierce Day, the question buzzing in the media room was, “Will Ray Allen Allen surface?” He did not until later when he posted a photo on Instagram of him golfing instead of showing respect for his teammate. Now, the book.

I’m not okay with most of Ray’s sins. But what burns me the most about Ray Allen is that he refused a no-trade clause, higher salary and larger role to go sit on the bench for the Celtics hated rivals in South Beach. That always burned me.

That may surprise those of you that have been listening to my big mouth over the years. Even Jon Duke called me out in his segment with Justin on Ray.

I’m an admitted Ray apologist.

Though the incidents cited above continue to eat at me, I still cannot blame Allen for wanting security for his family. Ray had been the focus of trade rumors for years. Rajon Rondo was the budding star as the Big Three’s careers started to fade. Post 2011, It was publicly assumed that Ray and Rondo’s relationship was not pretty.

I am always preaching team loyalty. Ray Allen may be one of the more notorious traitors in NBA history. I can still see why he left though.

Having advanced screened it, Sean Deveney has written about the feud and I found his conversation with Adam Kaufman on Celtics Beat recently to be quite enlightening. Ray’s regrets for the way he left were admirable. His frank remarks about he and Kevin Garnett’s off the court relationship were not shocking, yet quite interesting. Implied in Deveney and Kaufman’s discussion, it seems Ray and KG might even make peace some day. But Rondo? No-way.

With the Celtics 2008 Championship’s 10 year anniversary looming, the drama still lives on. I still can’t understand why.

I just seem to think there’s a lot more to this story than we will ever know. It seems that way.