End of an Era

Ray Allen is leaving the Celtics.

After meeting with the Miami Heat on Thursday and leaving without making a decision, Allen's agent confirmed on Friday night that the veteran shooting guard had agreed to sign with the defending champions. It won't be official until next week, but Allen is expected to sign a three-year deal for around $9.5 million.

While it's not completely unexpected, it is still in many ways a head-scratching move. In what is likely to be his final NBA contract, Allen is leaving a significant chunk of change on the table -- Boston's offer was reportedly two years, $12 million. He was rumored to be unhappy with losing his starting spot to Avery Bradley, but he's destined for a bench role with the Heat. (And let's face it: At his age, he and his twice-surgically-repaired ankles could use a few extra minutes on the pine). He (understandably) was upset at being at the center of rumors at the most recent trade deadline, but Boston was reportedly ready to give him a no-trade clause or a trade kicker in his new contract if he wanted one. The Heat probably give him a better chance to win another ring, but let's not forget that a very hobbled Boston team came within a quarter of beating Miami this past postseason -- and has added a couple of weapons in the offseason.

No, Allen to Miami just doesn't add up when you take the above into account -- it's less money for a similar situation, only with a tarnished legacy and legions of betrayed-feeling fans in his wake. There simply has to be more to it. Rumor has it that his fractured and deteriorating relationship with Rajon Rondo (which has been hinted at, without being detailed, in various news reports) played a big role in the decision, but I'm not buying that. Unless Rondo was literally beating Allen up and taking his lunch money, then leaving that kind of cash on the table to sign elsewhere doesn't make sense. You don't give up two-and-a-half mil just because you don't like one of your teammates.

As of this writing, Allen himself hadn't commented yet, and we may or may not ever know the real reason or reason that he decided to sign with the Heat. If I had to guess, I would say it's a little bit of ring-chasing and a whole lot of feeling under-appreciated by the organization. Allen has always been the third member of the Big Three, and from the trade rumors to the rise of Bradley to the offseason signing of Dallas' Jason Terry, Allen's role on the team -- and his ego -- undoubtedly has taken a hit over the last few months.

The kicker, though, is this: Allen apparently wanted three years and $27 million from the Celtics, an amount so misaligned with his on-court value to the team that it was either meant to be a non-starter and he was planning on leaving from the beginning, or he was looking for some sort of "hometown bonus." The former seems unlikely because of how long it took him to make the decision. That leaves the latter, that he wanted to be compensated for his service to the team -- a concept that doesn't seem so outrageous outside the context of professional sports.

Basketball-wise, letting Allen go was a no-brainer for the front office, given his demands. He likely isn't worth the contract we offered him -- he certainly isn't worth an additional year and an additional three million per. And while I have no doubt that the Celtics were sincere in wanting Ray to be part of a four-guard rotation with Rondo, Bradley, and Terry, shooting guard is a position of strength for the team even without him. It'd be great to have another guard, but Bradley and Terry -- and maybe even E'Twaun Moore -- have it covered. Allen wasn't the Allen we're used to last season, and at 37 and twice-operated on, there's a pretty good chance he's not getting back to that level. Indeed, the biggest blow to the Celtics in all of this, in terms of personnel, is that due to league salary rules, the team can't use the money it would have used to re-sign Ray to sign someone else. Last year, the Celtics desperately needed legitimate NBA rotation players, and whoever we get for the veteran's minimum or biannual exception isn't going to make the same impact that Allen would have made. Even if that player actually becomes a productive part of the rotation, we'll still likely be a half-player short of where we'd be with Allen.

That's just the basketball side of things, though, and if there's one thing I hope you've learned from reading this blog, it's that basketball means so much more than putting the ball in the hole more times than the other guys. It's about teamwork, pride, brotherhood, loyalty, disappointment, elation, success, failure ... the list goes on -- a metaphor for life. And this where I stop talking about "Allen," and start talking about Ray.

Although all of the Big Three deservedly get credit for subordinating their own offense for the good of the team and the championship cause over the past five seasons, it is Ray who has made the biggest sacrifice. Kevin Garnett's per-game scoring average has taken approximately the same hit Ray's has during their five years in green, but KG's oversized personality and the credit he gets for the team's defensive identity outshine that dip in production. Paul Pierce had to give up a few shots, and his scoring average dropped a couple ticks correspondingly, but as a career Celtic and the team captain, he is the guy who is announced last during pre-game introductions, and he was the guy who everyone was happiest for when we won the title in 2008. And importantly, he is the guy whose number Doc Rivers has most often called in the closing moments of tight games.

These are big sacrifices for a guy like Ray -- whose identity on the court was built solely on his ability to put the ball in the basket -- to make. And yet he made them -- and more, when Rondo emerged to take some of the spotlight, and still more when Bradley seized his starting spot -- largely without complaint, and with the same unwavering workmanlike effort that shaped his jumper into what is probably the prettiest shot any of us will have the pleasure of seeing.

As you might imagine, there's quite a bit of vitriol on the Internet directed by Boston fans at Ray. People are calling him a traitor -- "Judas Shuttlesworth" is my personal favorite -- and even going so far as to wish further bone spurs upon his tender ankles. Lapse of time will probably temper some of those reactions, but it will be interesting to see how the fans react the first time Miami comes into our barn next season. Boston fans -- hell, sports fans in general -- have a history of reacting negatively to this sort of thing, though the fact that Ray left for less money, and not more money as is usually the case, certainly adds a twist.

Me, I'm not mad at Ray. One of my buddies (who isn't a Celtics fan) asked me earlier this week how I'd feel about Ray if he left Boston to go to Miami. My response was that I'd have no hard feelings, that the organization hadn't exactly shown him loyalty recently, and if he wanted to give up a few million bucks for a little stability, that was fine with me. This was before I had heard about the no-trade clause/trade kicker aspect of his offer from the Celtics -- and, if he truly did have such an offer, that makes me feel a little less warm and fuzzy about this whole thing. But Ray was an unrestricted free agent, and as such, he had the freedom to sign anywhere he was wanted. He owed the organization, and the fans, nothing. (Whether he owed his teammates anything is between him and them.) His decision may be puzzling for all the reasons I already outlined, but it was his to make.

I'm just sad. Sad that I have to hope for Ray to fail. Sad that I won't again see Flo, his mother, wearing a bedazzled replica of his number 20 in the stands of the TD Garden, cheering him on. Sad that I'll never again perform my Ray Allen Big Shot Celebration, gliding backward in my office chair as he rises perfectly for his jumper, then thrusting a fist in the air and yelling "Walter Ray!" (his middle name is Ray) as the ball inevitably snaps through the net.

More than anything, I'm sad that the era is over; that this team that got me to fall back in love with the NBA is no more. Sad that it was finished off not by injury or age or the front office, but from within, while the window was somehow still open. Sad that ubuntu and the bonds of brotherhood are only so strong. Sad to be reminded that, as much as I want it to be, Boston no longer is much different from every other NBA franchise, and that even Celtics fans are, in essence, rooting for laundry.

And if we can squeeze another championship out of the final seasons of Pierce and KG? I'll be sad that Ray won't be around to share in it.