Still Not Down With Ray Allen’s Decision

I’ve come across a few more articles about Ray Allen’s Decision 2.0. Here’s one from the Boston Globe, no less.

Bashing Ray Allen for leaving is just wrong

Bob Ryan is unable to find anything negative in Ray Allen’s decision; that’s fine for him. But he’s not satisfied presenting his opinion as such; indeed, he doesn’t bother to spend much time talking about his opinion on Ray Allen. He declares himself objectively correct, and moves on to bash us, the fans.

I guess I disagree with his premise from the very beginning. We’re allowed to bash Ray Allen for leaving, even without a valid complaint. That’s the nature of being a fan. Ryan “admits” that when he was 20, he too felt ways about stuff, but he just can’t wrap his brain around anyone criticizing someone for making a decision he had every right to make. And yet, here he is criticizing us for making a decision we have every right to make. He’s funny that way.

Well, I think we do have very valid complaints. I’ve written about them here:

Ray Allen’s Unprecedented Move

Ray Allen Part 2

So, I’m not going to bother recounting what the complaints actually are. What I’m writing about this time is what the complaints are not, and why, bizarrely, we, the fans, have apparently become a big part of the story.

Ryan writes, sarcastically:

Well, of course Ray’s going to stay here. After all, he plays for the Celtics, and this is Boston, the World’s Greatest Sports Town. It was no longer a matter of a free agent exercising his contractual right.

I’ve read a lot of fans comments about Ray’s decision, and I haven’t encountered anyone claiming Boston is the World’s Greatest Sports Town. I guess it’s too much to ask that Ryan take any of our comments at face value; his retort is surely, “Yeah, you don’t say that’s why you object to his decision, but that’s what’s really going on.” Whatever.

A lot of Boston fans may indeed feel Boston is the World’s Greatest Sports Town, but that’s completely irrelevant. As great as we may think it is, we know it’s not a big draw. Some players, thankfully, are attracted by the glorious tradition of the Celtics (or the tortured but romantic tradition of the Red Sox, or the tough-minded winning tradition of the Patriots), but pretty much no NBA player comes to Boston because they want to be in Boston. That’s reality, and I think we’re all ok with it.

As for Ray Allen’s contractual rights, again, these words Ryan wants to put in our mouths are even more ridiculous. When has anyone implied Allen didn’t have the right to sign a contract with a different team?

Those fans who Ryan is so disapproving of sure are stupid. The only thing is, I don’t think any of them exist. But it sure is easy to seem superior when you criticize people whose stupidity is entirely of your own creation.

Ryan goes on to say:

It had become a test of Ray Allen’s — I love this — loyalty…

“Loyalty,” defined by Merriam-Webster as “being faithful to a cause or ideal,” is a ridiculously misapplied concept in this discussion…

It was a very fair and fruitful partnership.

Were the Celtics being “loyal” when they sought a trade for Ray Allen around the time of the All-Star break? No

It’s somewhat interesting that Ryan didn’t know the word’s meaning well enough to define it from memory. He claims the word is “misapplied”, because he comes up with an instance in which he states, unequivocally, that the Celtics did not show loyalty to Allen in that one instance.

Apparently what Merriam-Webster didn’t tell Ryan is that loyalty is not a purely binary concept. The Celtics showed plenty of loyalty to Allen; and, for what it’s worth, Allen showed plenty back, including signing for a hometown discount two years ago. It’s not a misapplied concept, at all. It’s at the very core of why people spend their time and money on sports.

It’s absolutely bizarre that Ryan doesn’t get this.

Thankfully, Ryan is able to eventually move past the snarkiness and get to the straight-on insults, returning to his earlier theme:

The big problem is that Celtics fans have been reading their own press clippings. People hereabouts have been told for far too long that they are living in the World’s Best Sports Town, which makes them, by extension, the World’s Best (and Most Deserving) Sports Fans. It’s all nonsense.

It is all nonsense. Kudos to Bob Ryan for calling out the fictitious morons he had invented earlier in the article.

Now that we’ve moved past all of this idiocy, can we be mad at Ray Allen please? Is that within our rights? I’m sorry we didn’t get it written explicitly into our Collective Bargaining Agreement, but I do think it’s pretty clearly implied. I hope we can get Bob Ryan’s blessing. I’d sure hate to disappoint him again.

So, let’s try to stop talking about the fans, and see if we can talk about NBA basketball for a second. Ryan writes:

it became obvious that Ray was not happy about being an off-the-bench sparkplug (going so far as to state that he did not see himself as a Vinnie Johnson instant offense type), there really wasn’t much to talk about. There would be no lack of suitors for Ray Allen. He would leave, and life for the Celtics and their fans would go on.

People should have been preparing themselves to wish Ray Allen a fond goodbye, especially after the Celtics signed free agent Jason Terry.

I was startled when the word was passed that, even after signing Mr. Terry, the Celtics still had an interest in re-signing Allen. How was that, money aside, ever going to be in his best interest?

In the most obvious way. The Celtics need a sparkplug off the bench. Ray Allen was exceptionally qualified to fill that role. There were reports in the press that he offered to do so, and that’s the role he was put into. But it was made clear that his “offer” was made under duress, and he didn’t want the role.

So, the Celtics went out and got a guy who recently won Sixth Man of the Year. Sparkplug off the bench. Done and done. This frees Ray Allen from having to fill the role. There’s still Avery Bradley. But, at least to start the season, he won’t be available. Ray Allen clearly would have been the starter. The role he wanted. Was there a guarantee that he’d keep the job when Bradley was healthy? I don’t know, I assume not, but the opportunity was there. What more could he want?

Now, let’s get back to the “money aside” comment. The reports say, Allen would have come back to the Celtics for three years, $27 million. So, maybe let’s not brush money aside quite so quickly. The Heat are the clear favorites this year, but they could have used Marcus Camby too, right? Let’s put the money aside and have Ray sign for the vet’s minimum with Miami, so they keep their mini-midlevel for Camby.

Don’t put the money aside. The money was really important. For enough money, he would have returned to the Celtics. When the Celtics wouldn’t give him what he wanted, he decided to go to the Heat, but only for every last dollar they could legally offer under the CBA (cuz I don’t think the Celts were going to go for a sign-and-trade). So, the money matters. And the Celtics offered twice as much.

But, the role matters, too. The Celtics offered a starting role to begin the season, with the Sixth Man role filled. Not good enough. So, surely the Heat offered a gig where he’d start every game, and just as importantly, be on the floor at the end of any close game. Right? RIGHT?

There were other teams which could have offered Allen a better deal than the Celtics. Some team may even have offered a “guarantee” of being the starter, at the full midlevel exception. If done with a modicum of… cover your ears, Ryan… loyalty, the Celtics would have done a sign-and-trade to get him even more money.

But, Allen didn’t really find any teams who wanted him where he wanted to go, beyond Boston and Miami. This was widely reported. Here’s an article from ESPN:

Allen visits Heat with Clips out, Celts waiting

This was published July 6. I think the interesting thing here is, find me the vitriol from Celtics fans. If any of Ryan’s nonsense held any water, there would have been all kinds of indignation then. “How could he even consider Miami, that rat bastard!” I don’t think that happened. Even die-hard Celtics fans saw Allen had the right to listen.

And, whether Ryan and the rest of Allen’s apologists believe it or not, we could have accepted Allen going to Miami, if only a single simple fact were true: if they made him a better offer. But they didn’t.

And the saga continues. At the press conference announcing him, Allen ridiculously claimed, “Forever, I’ll always be a Celtic.” No, Ray, you will not be. This isn’t rocket science. You aren’t a Celtic now. This precludes you from being a Celtic forever.

But the sentiment is worse than that. It would have been much better if he had said — and meant — “I’ve loved the idea of this super-team ever since LeBron signed on, and always kind of longed to be a part of it, and I’m so sick of that little bastard Rondo. I can’t wait to kick Boston’s ass.” We’re looking for sense, here. If that were the way he felt, his decision would have made sense. But he didn’t say it, and I don’t think he believed it. I don’t know what he believes.

All I can say, really, is that he’s revealed himself to be the epitome of a prima donna. You want to look that one up, Ryan? Here’s what M-W says (albeit definition 2): “a vain or undisciplined person who finds it difficult to work under direction or as part of a team”.

Bingo.

Why in the world would it possibly wrong to bash that?

Ray Allen, Part 2

I wrote my thoughts on Ray Allen’s Decision. I’m writing again in response to this article from the Boston Globe:

On his way out the door, it’s not right to rip Ray Allen

He writes: “But Allen left us with more good memories than these last 48 hours could ever sour.” I really don’t know what he’s getting at here. If the point is to say we’re forgetting all the good times, I kind of think we aren’t. Greg Stiemsma is poised to spurn the Cs too, and nobody seems to be too upset by it. It’s because Ray has so much history with the Celtics that we find this behavior so wrong. It’s not us who is forgetting the good times; it’s him. Or, more likely, it’s him who is saying, they never really mattered in the first place.

He then asks, “What about comparing Allen to Pedro Martinez?”. You can try a thousand different examples. I don’t think any of them work, for a number of reasons. One of them is, as I’ve said before: I believe Ray Allen is far and away the best player ever to sign as a free agent, as a pure “addition”, with a team which had just won the championship. Other good players have gone to the reigning champs. Ron Artest did it a few years ago; but he was going to replace Trevor Ariza. If Dwyane Wade were retiring, the Ray Allen decision would be seen very differently. But obviously Wade is coming back. Why do the Heat need Ray Allen? To replace Mike Miller? Miller is probably coming back too, but even if he weren’t, isn’t Ray better than that? Like, wayyyyyyyyy better than that?

Who’s forgetting all the clutch shots he’s hit? Us or him?

I really can’t understand anyone who considers himself a competitor taking on such a role. What would people have said if Karl Malone or Charles Barkely decided to sign with the Celtics after the 2008 championship, to back up Kevin Garnett? It would have been utterly pathetic. And it’s pathetic for Ray Allen to do it. If being Dwayne Wade’s caddy was what his career was reduced to, he should have retired.

But obviously, it’s not what his career was reduced to. The team with which he built all these supposedly great memories offered him much more… because he, through back-channel communication and off-the-record comments, indicated he was open to coming back. And if somehow, the pain of having to endure Rajon Rondo’s scowls, and the humiliation of being in Danny Ainge’s employ, was just too much for his fragile ego to stand, he had other options. I suspect the Clippers would have preferred him to Jamal Crawford; but Allen took his time and was cool to them, and they took the bird in the hand.

Allen still had other options beyond that. The Globe article goes on to say: “Allen is a great fit in Miami, where he doesn’t have to carry the load of a star”. Would he have had to carry the load of a star in Boston??? Isn’t that why we signed Garnett and Bass and Green and Terry, alongside Rondo and Pierce? Wasn’t Allen’s gripe that his role in Boston wasn’t big enough?

And then, predictably, the Globe goes on to repeat the ridiculous claim, “The Celtics twice tried to trade Allen”. Really? Well, the Celtics traded for Ray Allen in 2007, and they never traded him away. They signed him to a new contract in 2010, and offered him another contract, with a no-trade clause, and more money than anyone else would give him, in 2012.

Where’s the evidence they “tried to trade” him? You think he was so hard to unload, that Ainge was unable to? Danny Ainge has done some questionable things, but he wasn’t trying to trade Allen. He was trying to improve the team. As I wrote, I don’t like the way he went about it, either. But suggesting that it was ever a goal to trade Allen is just asinine. He was willing to trade Allen, from a team which was over the cap and yet 15-17, if he could get something which would clearly improve the team. He couldn’t, so he didn’t.

Maybe part of the reason Danny was willing to contemplate trading Ray was he saw that Ray was ready and willing to jump ship to whoever could give him another ring at the earliest convenience. I mean, if the Celtics had trade him for OJ Mayo, or, better, Courtney Lee, at last season’s trade deadline, can anyone doubt they’d be in a better position today?

They kept the team together, and tried to bring them back, and tried to guarantee keeping them together (via Ray’s no-trade clause), precisely because of all the stuff the Globe writes about. But Allen obviously didn’t care.

We also remember epic battles against the Miami Heat. It’s not that we thought he’d care about where we wanted him to go. We thought he would not want to join forces with them.

I can’t blame the Heat, or Heat fans, for welcoming Ray. But I think they have to be kind of rolling their eyes a little bit. Would would we do if, in two years, Kobe Bryant decides to spurn the Lakers and is willing to play in Boston, dirt cheap? Would we say no? I don’t think so. Would we think he’s kind of a dick? I don’t think there’s any doubt.

There are a lot of perhaps seemingly tiny changes which could have changed how I perceived this. To take it to an extreme: if, after the Celtics/Heat series, Kevin Garnett and Dwayne Wade both retired due to injury, and the Heat lost to OKC due to Wade’s absence, then I could totally see it. It would still be weird for Ray to go to Miami, but there would be so much to gain. Instead of sticking with a Celtics team which, lacking KG, couldn’t really content for a title, he could go to Miami and be the starting 2-guard who leads LeBron and Bosh to their first NBA title. That’d be worth doing.

To go along for the encore ride, as Dwyane Wade’s understudy? Ugh. I just can’t fathom the appeal. But, at least I can reserve the right to “rip” Ray Allen “on his way out the door.” Weak, Ray.

What number does Courtney Lee like? #20 is available.

Ray Allen’s Unprecedented Move

I want to try to make sense of Celtics fans’ reaction to Ray Allen choosing to sign with the Miami Heat. There’s a lot of anger, and that anger has been dismissed by some as sour grapes. I think there’s a lot more to it than that.

Let’s start with Ray’s grievances. I think they’re all valid, to one extent or another. Danny Ainge certainly did help bring this on:

Ainge would consider Big Three trade

After this caused some furor, he kind of doubled down:

Ainge: “It’s obvious” we would trade anyone.

Ainge really seems to not understand loyalty here. Emphasis on “seems to”. After this, he did try to walk it back. And some of his other actions, like the Jeff Green situation, do suggest he believes in some kind of loyalty. Also, he’s right, it is “obvious” he would trade anyone in the right situation. If somehow the opportunity arises to get Kevin Durant, yeah, you’d trade anyone. But there’s no reason to state it the way he did. Maybe he was trying to motivate the team. I don’t know.

But apparently he really did mean it, to some extent, since he went ahead and traded Ray Allen two months later:

Celtics agreed to trade Ray Allen

OK, the trade didn’t happen. But the fact is, Ainge agreed to trade Ray Allen. And it wasn’t a situation where Ainge talks to him, tells him he thinks things aren’t working out, find out where Ray would like to go, etc. And it wasn’t exactly Durant coming back. It was a pretty ordinary trade, treating Ray like a pretty ordinary player.

I thought Ray deserved better. At the same time, he is an NBA player, and that is part of the job. And, he was not actually traded, of course.

Then there’s the idea that he didn’t get the ball when he was open. What do I know, but I always wanted the offense to feature Ray more prominently. I’m sure there were times when Ray was open and Rondo didn’t get him the ball. That happens.

Of course, there was a good plan to get Ray more shots: run him more with the second unit. I always thought it would be a great fit, and Doc has said he’s thought so too. But apparently Ray wouldn’t go for it until he absolutely had to. So much for “anything to help the team win”.

Ray also complained that he was always the one to sacrifice. I’m not sure what that means. But I’m sure it’s true that he wasn’t the most highly regarded player on the team. Pierce and Rondo have both played their entire careers with the Cs. KG is a former MVP and was Defensive Player of the Year when the Celtics won the title. Last year, Ray was clearly no better than their 4th best player. If that hurts his feelings, I’m sorry, but that’s reality.

If he means, why should he be the one to come off the bench, well, see the previous paragraph. But also see this list of Sixth Man of the Year Winners. In the past eight years, seven of the winners have been shooting guards, and the eighth, Lamar Odom, handled the ball a lot and shot a lot of threes. That’s what you need for a sixth man. Ray has had some trouble getting his own shot as he’s aged, but he’s still the best to fill that role. And even if Pierce would be better in that role, Pierce is the captain.

Ray has also been asked to take less money than the other three.

So, again:

1. being dangled in trades
2. not getting the ball when he’s open
3. not being a focal point of the offense
4. not being a starter
5. not being the teams most highly regarded player / captain
6. less money

These are the reasons we’ve heard, and they’re fair complaints.

Here’s the problem. This summer, the Celtics offered him a better deal on every single one of the above grievances than the Heat did.

It was widely reported the Celtics were offering a no-trade clause. The Heat could not do that. The Heat have an offense centered around getting out in transition as often as possible, and having LeBron dominate the ball at the top of the key or in the low post in the half court. In Dwyane Wade, the Heat have a starter at Allen’s position who is better than him in every conceivable way besides shooting wide-open jumpers, and who is the team captain. The Heat have three guys who are all still in the primes of their careers, who are all making well into 8 figures and demand the ball. And yeah, sorry but they’re all better than he is, at this point.

And, to top it all off, the Heat will pay him half what the Celtics would have.

And then, to top it off further, he went to our “hated rival”. I actually don’t care about this part quite as much as some other Celtics fans do… but it matters. It especially matters since, given the above, it seems like picking the Heat may have been an intentional choice to stick it to the Celtics.

But, maybe Ray just wants to win. Right? That’s what this ESPN poll suggests. It asks:

What do you think was Ray Allen’s primary reason for choosing the Heat over the Celtics?

• Deteriorating relationship with Rondo and feeling of unrequited loyalty toward the Celtics
• It’s simple: He thought Miami gave him a better chance to win

Obviously, Miami gives him “a better chance” to win. Miami gives anyone a better chance to win. Miami just won!!! Miami got Juwan Howard a ring. They got Eddy Curry a ring. They even got Eddy Curry a ring. Yes, that deserves to be said twice.

And, of course, Wade is coming back. LeBron is coming back, but much more confident. Bosh is coming back, but healthier. Battier is coming back, and unless Pat Riley doesn’t want them to, Chalmers and Haslem and Cole and Anthony are all coming back.

The only guys who played any minutes in the Finals who might not come back are Miller and Jones. But that’s far from decided. It certainly sounds like Miller wants to come back, if his body cooperates.

So, Ray Allen is signing on to… umm… replace James Jones? And steal some of the minutes Spoelstra gave, in an act of desperation, to Norris Cole? That’s how he’s going to get the respect the Celtics didn’t show him???

If Ray had gone to a team — say, the Clippers — where it seemed he’d be the starting (and finishing) 2 guard, where his veteran, championship experience would be highly valued, and where he could get the other guys over the hump — preferably for at least the full midlevel exception — I think anyone could see that. Anyone could see why he’d want that opportunity, and that challenge.

But he can’t get Miami over the hump. There is no hump. They just won the title, without him. How are they going to do any better than that? They don’t need his leadership, they have eight guys who won an NBA championship more recently than he did. And, again, they don’t even have a job for him — except, possibly, the job he was outraged and wounded and offended when the Celtics nicely asked him to perform it.

And then, one more thing. A rumor, perhaps, but seems to come from reliable sources. Ray apparently would have signed with the Celtics if they offered an even bigger contract. Doesn’t this mean all this “pride” stuff goes out the window? If his relationship with the Celtics was irreparably damaged, then, fine. He should have made that clear at the beginning of free agency, and we could have moved on, and then he could have picked among his remaining suitors.

If it wasn’t irreparably damaged, but he wanted to be shown the love, on the bottom line, well, fine. The Celtics offered that. Way more money, and a no-trade clause. If he was willing to consider coming back to the Celtics, that should have gotten it done.

But, no. He was willing to come back to the Celtics, but their offer wasn’t good enough. A no-trade clause, a better role, an offense more suited to his abilities, the chance to be a crucial part of a very good team, with which he’d played for five years, and to have it end with #20 being raised to the rafters in the most storied arena in the NBA — plus more money — wasn’t enough to get it done. But, for another $15 million, he would have been in.

So, I think it’s easy to understand why the feeling of the fans is, “Good riddance”. We feel that way even though, up until two days ago, we really wanted him back. That’s not hypocrisy, and it’s not sour grapes. It’s a realization that the guy we thought we wanted on our team doesn’t exist.