The Sporting News has some excerpts from Ray Allen’s new book and by god, they are juicy. The juiciest might be this one involving an alleged deal involving Rondo for Chris Paul:
Before the start of the 2011-12 season, during the NBA’s lockout, there were discussions that Rondo would be traded to New Orleans for Chris Paul, but the possibility of a deal fell through, according to reports at the time, because Paul would not commit to signing with Boston when he became a free agent the following summer.
According to Allen, though, the deal fell through for a different reason: “In the end, Doc decided he couldn’t do that to their coach, Monty Williams. Doc was a mentor to Monty, having coached him in Orlando.”
WOW. If true, Doc Rivers likely cost us another championship.
There was a lot of speculation about the Celtics pursuit of CP3 in 2011. There was even this wild rumor about Boston offering Rondo to Golden State for Curry, whom they’d flip to NO for Paul.
Ray also details some of his encounters with KG:
As Allen tells it, there were early signs that he and Garnett, who were both intense players and intense personalities, would eventually clash. Allen recalled dribbling in front of his locker during the Celtics’ preseason trip to Rome in 2007, which was something Allen had done to prepare for games his entire career. The dribbling annoyed Garnett, though, who told Allen, “No, you’re not going to do that.”
“You can’t tell me what to do,” Allen remembered responding, as teammates looked on. “You do what you do, and I do what I do.”
As Allen wrote, “Gee, can two grown men be any more juvenile?” And it was a similar experience when, before the start of the season, Garnett and Allen went out to dinner at a steakhouse in Boston and spoke about their roots together as teenage players in the 1990s, and the pain of being on losing teams in the past. After dinner, Allen wrote, he asked the waitress for the check.
“No,” Garnett said, “I tip way better than him, so you better give me the check.” It was the first time they’d gone to dinner together, and Allen pointed out that Garnett had no idea how much Allen tipped. “There was no point in arguing with the guy,” Allen writes. “What struck me was that he felt the need to be seen as being superior to me, even in something as petty as this.”
I’m not going to defend KG’s dickish attitude, but dribbling inside a locker room is freakin’ annoying.
I’d be remiss to exclude this truly delusional comment attributed to Rondo:
But by 2011, that relationship was in tatters. Allen recalled that in 2009, because the Celtics’ front office had issues with Rondo, there was talk that Allen and Rondo would be traded to Phoenix for a package built around Amar’e Stoudemire. Allen told Rondo at the time that he should talk to team president Danny Ainge to work out their problems and keep from being traded.
It came up again during the 2010-11 season. In a team meeting, Allen writes, Rondo told his teammates, “I carried all of you to the championship in 2008.”
Allen continued: “The rest of the team, almost in unison, responded, ‘You what?’”
Was Ubuntu even real?
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