It’s well known that it wasn’t always smooth sailing for Ray Allen during his time with the Boston Celtics.
Although Allen was a key piece of the 2008 championship team in Boston, the former sharpshooter didn’t always see eye-to-eye with his former teammates. While Rajon Rondo has been keyed as the primary player Allen had difficulty with, apparently he had some beef with the captain of those teams as well.
Fans will get a closer look at Allen’s stint with the C’s in his upcoming book, “From the Outside: My Journey through Life and the Game I Love.” Some dirt on Rondo in the book already has leaked, as well as a rather surprising revelation about Allen’s relationship with Paul Pierce.
While Pierce is known for his tireless work ethic and will to win, Allen clearly didn’t always view The Truth in the same light. Allen never questioned Kevin Garnett’s effort, but Pierce’s level of intensity sometimes struck a nerve with Allen.
“He (Garnett) never took a game off. A possession off,” Allen writes, per Boston.com’s Nicole Yang. “I can’t say that of anyone else I played with, and I played with some of the best.”
“Paul Pierce, on the other hand, would explicitly announce he was “taking the night off” when matched up against a player who wasn’t considered to be elite,” Yang writes. “Although it was partially in jest, Pierce’s attitude ticked Allen off. He was sure to express his disapproval to Pierce, who eventually no longer joked about taking it easy.”
While Allen isn’t inherently wrong for wanting the most out of Pierce, it seems as though he’s overreacting a bit. It was Pierce who often carried the C’s to victory in the Big Three era, and he always seemed to have a knack for delivering in the clutch.
We wonder if Pierce will have the same reaction to Allen’s book as Rondo.
