The cool kids are throwing a party, and the outcast isn’t invited.
Former Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo recently told ESPN’s The Undefeated he’s organizing a get-together with former members of the Celtics’ 2007-08 team to celebrate the squad’s NBA championship. But according to Rondo, there’s one notable name not on the invite list: 10-time All-Star Ray Allen.
“I asked a couple of the guys. I got a no, a no head shake,” Rondo explained to The Undefeated’s Marc J. Spears when asked why Allen wasn’t invited.
There’s a backstory here, of course. Rondo and Allen didn’t see eye-to-eye during their time as teammates in Boston, and when Allen rejected the Celtics’ two-year, $12 million contract offer to sign with the Miami Heat in 2012, Rondo and his Celtics teammates felt betrayed — especially after the Heat had just defeated Boston in the 2012 Eastern Conference finals.
“We were at war with those guys (Miami),” Rondo told Spears. “To go with the enemy, that’s unheard-of in sports.”
According to Rondo, many of his ex-teammates were on board with Allen not being invited to the reunion.
“The mindset we had. The guys on our team. You wouldn’t do anything like that,” Rondo said. “It makes you question that series in the Finals … Who were you for? You didn’t bleed green.
“… I called and reached out to a couple of other vets and asked them what they wanted to do with the situation. They told me to stick with what we got (without Allen).”
Indeed, Rondo has invited every player on the ’08 roster — including role players like Eddie House, Leon Powe and Brian Scalabrine — to the party, which he says will be held at an international location sometime this summer. The only ex-Celtic besides Allen who hasn’t yet responded is “hard-to-locate” retired big man P.J. Brown, whom Rondo still is trying to track down.
It looks like Allen will have to find other summer plans, because he clearly still isn’t forgiven by Rondo or his former teammates.
Thumbnail photo via Steve Mitchell/USA TODAY Sports Images
