One of the most consequential moves within the past fifteen years in the NBA was Ray Allen leaving the Boston Celtics to join the Miami Heat. The Big 3 Boston Celtics were locked into a multi-year rivalry with LeBron James that predated The Decision, and James's “Heatles” gained the upper hand on the Celtics as they'd won the last two playoff matchups and the NBA Championship in 2012.
Allen's move to the Heat was momentous, not just for what his three-point shooting ability did to help the Heat win the 2013 NBA Championship but also how his departure affected a contending Boston roster. But, what the Celtics did was dairing in acquiring Allen and Garnett to pair with Pierce. All three were multi-time All-Stars who unfortunately hadn't made an NBA Finals before their arrival with the storied franchise. On paper, the three players would be dynamic but they had to get past their ego to ultimately form a winning team.
In an interview with Dan Patrick, Allen detailed a confrontation that he had with Garnett while in Rome in 2007.
“I remember we played our first game in Rome. And before the game I'm in here just dribbling the ball getting ready, I'm excited this is the first game together. And then he (Kevin Garnett) looks over at me and he's kind of moving to the locker room. He looks over at me he goes, ‘How long you going to be doing that?’ And I was like, ‘Doing what?’ And I'm just sitting there dribbling between my legs. He's like, ‘You going to be dribbling the whole time?’ I said, ‘Yeah we're about to play a basketball game this is what you do.’”
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He continued, “That was the moment where you got alpha males just kind of banging up against each other because the previous year he was in the locker room where he was the guy, I was in the locker room where I was the guy and everything kind of marched to the beat of our drums. And so now we had to learn to share space with other individuals like ourselves and it was an eye opener.”
Allen, Pierce, and Garnett eventually were able to get past their egos and form the Hall-Of-Fame trio, finishing the 2007-2008 season with a 66-16 record and a NBA playoff run that ended in a six-game defeat over Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. But, the team never was able to achieve championship glory again, as injuries, roster changes and an evolving NBA landscape ultimately caused the team to only make one other final appearance in 2010. Allen's departure from the Celtics was the final nail in the coffin.
When Ray Allen left the Celtics for the Heat, it strained his relationship with Kevin Garnett, leading to years of distance between the two after retirement. Allen shared how Garnett confronted him during their first game together as Celtics teammates, highlighting the challenges they both faced in adjusting. However, the former Celtics champions eventually reconciled during Garnett’s retirement ceremony with the team.