Ray Allen Felt Disrespected in Boston

After five seasons in Boston, Ray Allen felt he wasn’t getting the respect he deserved. The future Hall of Famer didn’t like how the Celtics dangled his name in trade talks, and his relationship with Rajon Rondo was “too far gone.” Yahoo! reports that Allen wanted to exact revenge on the Celtics, signing for much less with the Heat: “The issues chasing Ray Allen out of the Boston Celtics and into the arms of their most despised opponent stacked higher and higher, and suddenly everything crystallized in the hours basketball’s most persuasive recruiter, Pat Riley, captivated him. The emperor of the Miami Heat sold Allen on never hearing his name in trade talks and a run of championships awaiting him. After all these years, Allen needed to feel wanted again, needed the recruiting, and Riles had such a willing soul sitting with him in the breeze blowing over Biscayne Bay. ‘He felt he was getting respect that he hadn’t gotten from [Celtics president] Danny [Ainge] and [coach] Doc [Rivers] anymore,’ a source close to him said Friday night. ‘…The presentation was incredible.’ Respect comes in different ways, but make no mistake: The Celtics had offered two years and $12 million – respect for someone’s who’s 37 and coming off ankle surgery – and it didn’t matter to Allen. He hated the way Ainge dangled him in trade talks, hated that the Celtics told him he was on his way to Memphis in a deal at the March deadline only to have Rivers later tell him the trade was dead. Allen hated that Rivers didn’t give him his starting job back after he returned from a late-season ankle injury, and hated that it always felt like he was the Celtics star made to sacrifice above the rest. Ainge and Rivers talked to Allen over and over on these issues in recent weeks, tried to smooth over the lingering bitterness, but there was something that Allen couldn’t move past, something he no longer wanted to deal with – the deterioration of his relationship with complicated point guard Rajon Rondo.”