Did Doc Rivers knock Ray Allen’s character?
Doc Rivers deflected blame from Rajon Rondo in the Ray Allen situation, but may have gone deeper into Ray Allen’s character.
In an interview with Yahoo! Sport’s (and one of the greatest basketball writers of our time) Adrian Wojnarowski, Doc Rivers was asked about Ray Allen’s departure. One of the major questions was who was at fault in the whole situation considering that a lot was made about the relationship between Allen and Celtics point-guard Rajon Rondo. Doc Rivers decided to shoulder the blame.
“People can use all the Rondo stuff — and it was there, no doubt about that — but it was me more than Rondo,” said Rivers, who is working as an NBC analyst during the Olympics. “I’m the guy who gave Rondo the ball. I’m the guy who decided that Rondo needed to be more of the leader of the team. That doesn’t mean guys liked that – and Ray did not love that – because Rondo now had the ball all the time.
“And not starting [games] bothered Ray. I did examine it, and the conclusion I came back to was this: By doing the right things, we may have lost Ray. If I hadn’t done that, I would’ve been a hypocrite. In the opening speech I make every year, I tell the team: ‘Every decision I make is going to be what’s good for the team, and it may not be what’s good for the individual.’”
While I do think that Rivers was trying to deflect some of the heat from his young point-guard who has been known to be moody at times, it’s not the first part of the interview where he deflects the blame to himself that interests me, it is the second part.
Read that last paragraph I posted again. “By doing the right things, we may have lost Ray”.
When the Big Three 2.0 was joined in August of 2007, there was a lot a talk about how three superstar players would join forces in and make it work. Whenever they were asked, each of the three responded with selflessness and always reiterated that they were willing to give up the ball and the minutes in order for the team to be successful. It is what made them so successful over the years. Each of the three, and the four with the advent of Rondo, knew what their role was at all times and stuck to it. Paul Pierce was the primary scorer who could create for himself as well as spot up and knock down a shot. Kevin Garnett was the post presence and the heart of the defensive intensity. Rajon Rondo was the quarterback tasked with making the right decision with the basketball on each and every play.
And Ray Allen, well his job was simple. Run around off screens, make the defense dizzy, stand in the corner and bury open shots.
Yet now it seems that Ray Allen was the unhappy one through all this. Despite having a set role and despite numerous words over the years that everyone understood their role, Ray seemed to be unhappy. In Pat Riley’s book about the Lakers run to the 1987 NBA title (that the Celtics’ would have won if Bias didn’t overdose and McHale’s foot wasn’t broken, but I digress) Pat Riley coined the phrase the “Disease of More”. The idea is that defending champions often fail the following season because every player who returns wants more playing time, more shots per game, and more money. The Boston Celtics on the outside never suffered from the disease after winning the 2008 Championship which is a major reason why they have sustained continued success in this window.
Despite all this, it sounds like Ray Allen was infected. Of the three, he was often the lesser one. He wasn’t “forgotten”, but he was never the first mentioned whenever bloggers or fans or the talking heads brought up the Celtics core. According to Doc Rivers, Ray wanted more. He wanted the ball more, he wanted the ability to create more, he wanted to play outside his role and make a bigger name for himself instead of doing what was necessarily better for the team. When Doc wanted to start Avery Bradley because that’s what he saw was best for “the team”, Ray Allen was angry because he wanted more. Just because Doc Rivers, who has rarely pushed the wrong button in the past five seasons, thought Ray Allen off the bench was best for the team, Ray wasn’t happy about it because it limited him.
Which makes his move to the Miami Heat all the more puzzling. According to Doc Rivers, Ray Allen would have most wanted to go to the Los Angeles Clippers where he would start and have a major role in the offense. He isn’t going to start in Miami, in fact, he will have the same exact role that he would have had in Boston. He will come off the bench, run off of screens, and stand in the corner and shoot open 3-point shots. In fact, his role is arguably lesser because they will run less screen plays for Allen and have more situations where he is simply the kick-out on a Lebron James or Dwyane Wade drive and kick play. It’s almost as if he went to the Miami Heat just to spite the Boston Celtics for what he sees as them spiting him.
Maybe it wasn’t Rajon Rondo who had trouble getting along, but Ray Allen. Am I crazy, or doesn’t it seem that Doc Rivers is saying “good riddance” to Ray Allen?
Wednesday, August 1st 2012 at 9:59 PM |
Doc Rivers is a great coach and Ray Allen is a great player. What Doc believes is best for the Celtics may be right most of the time, it sure isn’t right ALL of the time. There is no question Allen can still play. Rondo had some great stats and was a big factor often because he had the ball all the time. Remember when Pierce was hurt a few years ago in the playoffs? Ray came out and hit in the 40′s and even had a 50 point game as I recall because he was the offense. It didn’t make them winners but what other super star on the Celtics could have done that – no one. Not Pierce, not Garnet, not Rondo. Ray can still play and he maybe should have been a bigger part of the offense. Rondo could have given up the ball a lot more and the offense could have created more involvement for Allen. Sour grapes – maybe some but why spend another season with a team that doesn’t give you the right amount of respect and go with one that gives you a better chance of garnering the big ring.
Thursday, August 2nd 2012 at 4:06 AM |
What are you talking about jocko? Pierce can light up for at least 40 – he had some great battles AGAINST Lebron in cleveland, when he had to play defense as well. KG may not put up those numbers, but his impact on the game (for defense and rebounding is easily worth that much). And rondo in game 2 was crazy in terms of scoring. Ray Allen definitely has (or had) game, but that doesn’t mean the other key members of the team can’t do the same thing…
Thursday, August 2nd 2012 at 6:37 AM |
Those games where Ray was getting 40-50 I believe came against the chicago bulls in the division series against a mediocre bulls team minus tom thibodeau (celtics assistant coach at the time). Despite those big numbers ray posted, that series still when the full seven games and was followed by a loss to the Orlando Magic. A valid argument could be made that if Garnett was healthy throughout the playoffs (strictly hypothetical) the celtics would have been favorites to repeat as champions. What Garnett provides to the team is terrific team defence (forcing ooponents to take inefficient shots) as well as more efficient offense. While Pierce has the ability to create his own offence and hit big shots, Ray Allen never was quite up to par with Pierce, though he was the best option for an open shot. I have to say that Ray did a generally good job playing his role hitting open shots) as part of the team’s offence throughout his stay in Boston. Watching the Celtics play the Heat last season, I believe a key reason why Miami eventually prevailed in the series was due to the return of Chris Bosh. On the Celtics side they should never have had Garnett guarding Bosh out on the perimeter, (where he unusually converted his shots successfully most of the time) as Garnett’s role I believe is best served as someone who patrols the lane and provides help denfence where necessary creating tough shots for Lebron and Wade. When Ray couldn’t keep step with the drives of Lebron and Wade the Heat would get too many easy shots. In this instance Avery Bradley’s unfortunate injury came at a critical time in the season. But the impression was that Ray Allen was also suffering from an ankle injury at the time.
What could be taken away from the series was despite the inferior athletic ability of the Celtics matched up against the heat, they were likely the more intelligent team on the court (if not in all of basketball the past few years.) As great as Bird and Magic were as individual players, their abilities to get the most out of the team pushed their respective teams to multiple finals and created their legacy. The 1986 Celtics team who are arguably the greatest team ever put on the court, had their greatness defined by their terrific passing ability. It was also the year they added Bill Walton who was renowned as one of the best passing Centers in the game.
Anyway i believe whatever is in Ray’s interest is up to him, but I think he played his role very well while in Boston whether he enjoyed it or not. The major question each year following the Cetlics 2008 Championship has been the question of health. from 2009, 2010(Perkins), 2011 (rondo) as well as 2012 ( primarily Bradley, but also Green along with Wilcox). Trust me Celtics know more than any other team the formula to winning basketball games (Team is bigger than individual).
Thursday, August 2nd 2012 at 7:49 AM |
I’m neither a Celtic or a Heat fan, but I really respect Doc Rivers, both as a coach, former player and person. When two player don’t get along as in the case of Rondo and Ray, the coach must do his best to appear as if he has no favorites. But in the end he must make a decision in favor of one player. It is very important to have a happy and productive point guard who knows what is expected of him more so that a three point shooter. Personality wise, Rondo sucks, but his job is more important. Result: the Celtics loose a good player. Ray felt that Rondo was often out of control when penetrating and should have been kicking the ball out instead of trying to get to the hoop against a packed in defense. Who was right, who knows? But the end result was Rivers chose to side his younger point guard.
Friday, August 3rd 2012 at 2:43 PM |
“Personality wise, Rondo sucks”… so what did you guys do when you hung out or when you sat down and spent time with him? Or are you just going off what you’ve read in the media? Probably the latter. Not saying he’s an angel, but sucks is a bit much. Especially when you’ve probably only seen him on television.
Thursday, August 2nd 2012 at 12:24 PM |
Allen is gone and Rondo is here. Of course Rivers is going to say that Allen was the problem; he’s managing assets, not delivering candid and 100% truthful assessments of What Is Truth.
As for your long distance psychoanalysis of Allen’s motivations, um, is it possible that dude just wants to win championships, and thinks his best chance to do that is to be with the champions?
Thursday, August 2nd 2012 at 2:03 PM |
@ Robert Smith. Are you serious? Miami winning the ECF had nada to do with Bosh. Maybe you forgot, but Miami won games 1 and 2 without Bosh and lost game 5 with Bosh. I don’t buy that argument, sorry. How about Lebron credit, because he avg double-double during the ECF. The Celtics simply went cold in gm 6. Game 4 in the final minutes the C’s ran out of gas and got no bench support.
Ray had his reasons for leaving I just don’t agree with some of them. But in Miami Ray will have a lesser role.
Thursday, August 2nd 2012 at 2:08 PM |
@dmtshooter…If u think Ray Allen leaving, because he just wants to win chips, then you’re seriously delusional, no disrespect. I’m just saying…
Friday, August 3rd 2012 at 11:45 AM |
This is a clown article bro.