‘It’s gonna smooth over’: Paul Pierce opens up on Ray Allen feud
Paul Pierce is ready to put the past behind him, at least some of it.
In a recent interview, the player-turned-broadcaster said he hopes the 2008 Celtics’ feud with Ray Allen will end soon.
“I know eventually it’s gonna smooth over,” said Pierce. “We’ll all sit down one day, probably have a cigar, glass of wine and talk about it. Hopefully sometime in the near future. You know I’m hoping.”
The former Celtics teammates won the 2008 NBA championship together, and along with Kevin Garnett formed a Boston Big 3 that helped inspire today’s NBA super teams.
But things between Allen and the Celtics’ last championship team haven’t been great lately. In an interview with ESPN in 2015, Pierce told Jackie MacMullan that the relationship between Allen and the Celtics was “weird.”
“We were all good friends on the court, but Ray always did his own thing,” said Pierce. “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.”
Earlier than that, Garnett admitted that he and Allen hadn’t spoken since the Big 3 broke up in 2012, and that he didn’t have Ray’s number anymore. In a televised sit-down during TNT’s recent coverage of the NBA playoffs, Garnett, Pierce, Rajon Rondo, and Glen Davis elaborated on their rift with Allen, saying the whole thing “felt like a sour breakup.” The former teammates blamed a lack of communication from Allen before the All Star shooting guard’s decision to bolt to Miami in free agency as the main reason for the animosity.
“It was more than basketball for us… It felt like a sour breakup.”
Pierce, KG, Rondo, Big Baby & Perk share their thoughts on Ray Allen. pic.twitter.com/8JYRWmxm0i
— KG’s Area 21 (@KGArea21) May 9, 2017
In the first year Allen, Pierce, and Garnett were together, the Celtics went 66-16 during the regular season before taking down the Hawks, Cavaliers, Pistons, and Lakers in the playoffs.
“When you accomplish something special like that, man, you’re linked together for life,” said Pierce. “We’re gonna be known as the Big 3, the Boston Big 3. We’re gonna be linked forever.
“We’re gonna have a reunion, come to the floor in the Boston Garden, he’s gonna be there. We don’t want it to be awkward when that’s the first time we see him. I’m sure that now that I’m retired, Kevin’s retired, a lot of guys from that team’s retired, I’m sure we’ll come together and work through it.”
While Pierce was speaking by phone, a publicist showed him a Boston Globe photo from Game 4 of the 2008 Finals, when Boston overcame a 24-point deficit against the Lakers to take a 3-1 lead in the series. Pierce was asked to describe how he felt looking at it.
“Man I just remember when I went up to him, my first thought was like, ‘Man, Ray pretty much saved the day for us,'” says Pierce. “I remember it was Game 4 for the comeback, he made some spectacular plays down the stretch, getting to the bucket. And it was just — I enjoy being able to be a part of that, and watching another great player come through when you needed it most. I was just so happy. That’s the kind of — when you put your arm around somebody like that, that’s like what you do to your son or your brother or a family member. That’s the type of hug you give him. That’s what it was.”
Pierce played his last game NBA game for the Los Angeles Clippers on April 30. Allen retired in 2014 after playing two seasons for the Miami Heat.
