That thing between the Celtics and LeBron James is a deep-seated grudge for sure. Playoff battles, petty skirmishes, loaded trash talk; Bron’s pre-Miami history with most players turned out to be a fierce rivalry in the making. All rivalries aren’t grudges, though, are they? But this one turned into a decade-long ugly one. Hint: Ray Allen. There was a point where Allen couldn’t return to Boston without getting booed… But why talk about it now?

Paul Pierce, aka The Truth, dropped some massive truth bombs on Club Shay Shay recently. Despite the thawed-out animosity between him and his former teammate, he did clearly spell out why the Celtics were mad at Ray Allen. “It was absolutely where he went [that upset us],” Pierce said.

“You got to understand we had been battling LeBron through the last four or five years. The Heat aren’t our rivals. It’s LeBron; he is our rival. Dude, we just played them in the playoffs a year ago, you can’t go play with them,” he continued.

Allen went to the Heat, who had beaten the Celtics in 2012 and then went on to win a championship. Immediately after, Allen took off and broke up the Boston ‘Big 3’ of himself, Pierce, and Kevin Garnett. Unlike the historic rivalry with the Lakers, their biggest competition in the East was the LeBron-led Miami.

The idea of one of them switching sides to King James, whether Miami, or anywhere, was so hurtful, Pierce said, “I would have been better off [with] him going to the Lakers. And that’s our biggest rival. I would’ve been cooler with him doing that.” Sharpe actually found this notion hilarious.

Though on a serious note, he asked if it was really LeBron or the way Allen left that angered him…

Bear in mind that only a few days ago, Kendrick Perkins claimed Paul Pierce and LeBron James hadn’t buried the hatchet yet from the spitting controversy that happened decades ago. However, Pierce was open enough to admit the bitter truth of how his friendship with Ray Allen ended.

LeBron James is NOT the reason behind Paul Pierce and Ray Allen’s estrangement

The Boston Celtics’ disdain for LeBron James intensified following Ray Allen’s sudden departure. Sudden, being the keyword. Before deeming his relationship with the latter as “brotherhood,” Paul Pierce admitted, “The biggest issue was, Shannon, we didn’t have no conversation.”

Pierce continued, “‘Ay, I’m thinking about doing this’… You’ve built something here. Like, if there was an issue with a contract, maybe there was something that I could talk about… lean on us… to us.’ To wake up and hear it, that’s the issue I had… I was like, Damn, we couldn’t even get a phone call or nothing. Like, is it something we could have done?”

Ray Allen once told reporter Sean Deveney that he planned to stay put in Boston with hopes of a $24 million contract. Apparently, though, the team wanted to rebuild around Rajon Rondo and offered Allen a $12 million deal instead. It was the reduced role more than the money that angered Allen enough to take a $6 million contract with Miami. The following year, he helped the Heat’s Big 3 to a second consecutive championship.

So Pierce wasn’t exaggerating when he said, “If Ray stayed we could have won two.”

However, it can’t be said that Ray Allen’s move to Miami was abrupt, or that they didn’t see the signs. Sharpe even asked Pierce about the rumors that Allen had checked out homes in Miami during the 2012 playoff series. The Truth, however, simply claimed that Allen had “checked out” by then.

If Pierce felt he didn’t have a fair warning or the opportunity to intervene, the time for that was before the July 11, 2012 announcement. Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and Micky Arison themselves dropped hints about Ray Allen’s signing on social media. “Its 2:30am in London and I was just woken up with great news. Welcome to the family #20,” Arison wrote, celebrating on X (then Twitter).

Was it really necessary to leave, though? Could they not have worked things out in Boston? As Big Perk reiterated, Ray Allen was done with the Celtics and wasn’t going to stay on the bench… even if that meant getting booed for years to come.