The 2008 Celtics Went On TV And Whined About Ray Allen [UPDATED]

The stars of the 2008 Boston Celtics are, somehow, still mad at former teammate Ray Allen for leaving Boston in 2012 and signing with the Miami Heat. They are not only so mad about it that they didn’t invite Allen to their 10-year anniversary party, but so mad that they went on national TV last night to talk about how mad they are:

This is a segment from last night’s NBA broadcast on TNT, in which Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Glen Davis, and Rajon Rondo lay out why they are still angry at Allen, all these years later. Their side of the story essentially boils down to this: They aren’t mad that Allen decided to leave the Celtics for the Heat, but that he didn’t give them advance warning before going.

On the one hand, this is a really interesting look into team dynamics, and it’s cool to see former players being so open about their relationships with each other. Pierce talking about how Allen had soured on Doc Rivers by 2012 because Avery Bradley was starting to get more minutes gives fans a valuable peek into locker-room politics.

On the other hand, this is exhausting. So Ray Allen didn’t call everyone up to tell them he was thinking about signing with the Heat. Who cares?! People leave their current jobs for better jobs all the time, and nobody is required to ask permission or receive blessings form their co-workers before they do so. Just last week, one of my co-workers left this company very suddenly, and everyone here did the mature thing: We spent a day making fun of him on Twitter and then let it go. Nobody is going to be mad at him nine years from now.

The five angry Celtics did offer some hope that the grudge can be put to bed, as they all agreed that if Allen wants to make amends, it’s up to him to reach out to the others after having been frozen out for five years. Something tells me that’s not going to happen:

Update (6:50 p.m. ET): The Facebook post screenshot above has been deleted, and Rachel Nichols reports that “Ray Allen’s publicist now tells me Ray’s verified Facebook page was hacked, that he didn’t post Celtics-clapback pic. FB unverified the page.” Such a strange coincidence that Ray Allen was hacked again!