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Ray Allen has left the Boston Celtics to join the Miami Heat.
For Celtics fans expressing anger about this decision by Allen: it's not worth it.
This is the NBA, and it's a job.
Yes, being an NBA basketball player is a dream for most people. For the players who do it for a living, it's a job. It's a job that has plenty of good aspects, but at the end of the day it will still possess many of the shortcomings that other jobs come with.
Surely everyone has had a boss they liked, or didn't like. A co-worker they liked, or didn't like. A system at work where they felt better, or one in which they felt less comfortable.
So when Ray Allen departed the Boston Celtics to play for the Miami Heat on Friday night, the reaction was swift.
According to a report by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, Allen left because:
- He wasn't happy about Celtics president Danny Ainge shopping him in trade talks last season.
- Allen wasn't happy about being replaced as the starting shooting guard by Avery Bradley late in the regular season and into the playoffs.
- Allen also allegedly had a not-so-friendly relationship with point guard Rajon Rondo. Although, Allen has remained silent on this subject.
If in fact these are the reasons for Allen's departure, Celtics fans need to do two things.
Appreciate just how good Allen was for most of his Celtics career and get over it. Accept that Allen did what most people would do under similar circumstances.
He changed jobs.
If you root for the Celtics, then you root for the Boston Celtics, not Ray Allen. If you think that the Celtics are better off starting Avery Bradley over Ray Allen next season, I'd be in total agreement.
If you think that almost no player is above being shopped in a trade, well you would be correct again.
So why bother being mad at Ray Allen? He did what was best for Ray Allen, that's part of being a professional athlete. Think about this: He didn't just take the most money and assume that an extra few million dollars would be able to buy off his heart and his emotions.
Clearly, Ray Allen feels like he can start—clearly, he wasn't best friends with Rajon Rondo. Had he taken the larger sum of money, it would not have changed his feelings about his ability to start, and it probably wouldn't have changed his feelings about Rajon Rondo either.
Adults realize that there are times when it's not all about the money.
Ray Allen was great, he may be correct that he's a better starting shooting guard than Avery Bradley. At some point he won't be though, and the Celtics owe it to their fans to insure that the team is good, not just next year, but for years to come.
It was the right move for Ainge and Doc Rivers to move Bradley into the starting lineup—the right move for the Boston Celtics. Ray Allen owes it to himself to be a starter, or to play in an environment that he enjoys the most.
Being a professional basketball player is probably a pretty amazing career. It's also fairly brief. Why wouldn't Ray Allen want to maximize his playing time, play where he wants to, and with who he wants to?
He's got to know that the there is only so much playing time left in his career. Who are Celtics fans to begrudge him the right to take full advantage of that limited window?
Ray Allen not getting along with Rajon Rondo is not a matter of good-guy versus bad-guy, it's just two guys who don't get along. It happens in life.
Finally while it's easy to dislike the Miami Heat, they really aren't much of a rival. Stop giving them so much credit. The Celtics had already won 16 NBA titles when the Heat played their first game as a franchise.
This isn't Johnny Damon taking a few extra million dollars to shave his beard, cut his hair, and join the Yankees. The Heat aren't the Yankees, not even close, and money was clearly not the primary issue.
This isn't Roger Clemens putting on weight, celebrating his departure, and then winning back-to-back Cy Young Awards, before winning a World Series in the Bronx.
Ray Allen spent four years in Boston. That's not a long career, or a long stay in one city. It's not merely a flyover, but we're not talking about a career Celtic.
Miami will be Allen's fourth team. He played far more games as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks, which is where he started his career in the fall of 1996, and where he remained until February 20, 2003.
Celtics fans who think of Allen as "traitor" are giving the Heat, and Allen far too much credit.
Here's the scoreboard that should matter most to Celtics fans.
Total championships: Boston Celtics 17, Miami Heat 2.
The Celtics will be fine without Ray Allen, the Heat may be better, or Ray Allen may deal with injuries for the better part of next season.
No one really knows, but the Celtics without an unhappy Ray Allen are probably a better team than the Celtics with him.
With the additions of two first-round draft picks, another bona fide three-point shooter in Jason Terry, and the further development of Rajon Rondo and Avery Bradley, the Celtics are in a good position.
No team played the Miami Heat tougher in the playoffs last year than the Boston Celtics. Not the Oklahoma City Thunder, not the Indiana Pacers and not the New York Knicks.
The Celtics extended the Miami Heat to seven games, while Ray Allen played like a mere shadow of the player who helped lead Boston to two NBA Finals trips and one ring.
Celtics fans don't have to imagine a Boston Celtics team without Ray Allen knocking down tons of three-pointers—they already saw it, in this past season's playoffs. The results weren't that bad, and the team that takes the court at the start of the 2012-2013 NBA season will feature more firepower than last year's Celtics team.
At this point Celtics fans should simply say "thanks for the run Ray, and we'll see you in the playoffs."
Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1250385-boston-celtics-ray-allens-departure-isnt-worth-the-anger
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