Former NBA champion Paul Pierce was a guest on All The Smoke Podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. Among the topics discussed was the situation between him and Ray Allen who went on to leave the Boston Celtics and joined LeBron James in Miami.
According to The Truth, when the contract negotiations were taking place, he tried to reach Allen but he had just closed himself off from everyone. On top of that, he chose to team up with Boston’s rival LeBron. Over the time, they smoothed the situation but initially Pierce was not pleased, to say the least.
Per Michael Kaskey-Blomain of CBS Sports:
“This is my whole deal with Ray. One, he went to our rival. LeBron James was a rival of the Celtics, regardless if he was in Cleveland or Miami. Those were some of the [most] heated matchups. It was just like ‘damn, they just beat us, and then you’re going to go over there.’
“Two, I was calling him when [the Celtics] were in the middle of contract negotiations before he left. He’s not answering anybody’s calls and I’m hearing he’s talking about going to Miami. He’s not returning my call. I just feel like as a certain respect as a teammate, as a brother, we can have this conversation. If you’re not wanting to play with us no more, at least let us know something. But to just don’t say nothing to us and to just get up and go over there, I felt that was a slap in the face or disrespect from a brother. So that was my whole beef with him. Since then, me and him have talked, I smoothed things over with him. But initially, as a brother, somebody you’ve been through things with, I felt it was disrespectful.”
