It’s long been known Ray Allen fell out of favor with his former Boston Celtics teammates after leaving for the rival Miami Heat back in 2012.
One former Celtic apparently had a separate ax to grind with Allen, however.
Ex-Boston big man Kendrick Perkins on Wednesday shed light on the lingering feud between Allen and Rajon Rondo, which dates back well before the sharpshooter shifted to South Beach. Not long after the C’s won the 2008 NBA title, Chris Paul was rumored to be on the trading block, with Boston being floated as a potential landing spot. Allen, according to Perkins, entertained the potential blockbuster more so than other members of those Celtics, which drew the ire of Rondo.
“…Chris Paul was on the trading block, he wanted out of New Orleans. Of course, he was an MVP-type player — you have to entertain it,” Perkins said on ESPN’s “The Jump.” “But us as a whole in the family — our starting five that never lost a playoff series when healthy — we figured, hey, we got more than enough. We know each other’s tendencies. But Ray was one of the people that entertained it and it got back to Rondo. The way our locker room was set up, if we had a problem with one another, we hashed it out. So we made them talk it out, but I think since that situation, in particular, Ray and Rondo never really, really, really seen eye-to-eye after that.”
At this point, Rondo might be the only member of that Celtics bunch who still holds ill will toward Allen. Several others from those teams, including Paul Pierce and Tony Allen, have acknowledged they’ve moved on.
