For all the things that were said about Ray Allen by members of the 2008 Celtics during Monday night’s roundtable, the most intriguing words from Kevin Garnett weren’t even about Allen.
“You chillin’, though?” Garnett asked with a grin. “You’re chillin’, though? You’re chillin’? You’re chillin’, though?”
Garnett was speaking to Rajon Rondo, who sat in silence as Garnett, Paul Pierce, Kendrick Perkins and Glen “Big Doesn’t Really Need to Be Part of This; He was a Rookie and Averaged 2.3 Points and 1.5 Rebounds That Postseason” Davis all vented their frustrations with the third member of the Celtics’ most recent Big Three.
The video essentially served as a 6:35 diss track. Yet Rondo never took a verse.
And perhaps that’s the most interesting thing about the video. This was four players airing a public vendetta (and showing hyper-sensitivity in the process) in a way that’s usually not seen. To not be able to participate in that conversation says one of two things about Rondo: that he doesn’t have much to say or that what he has to say is on an entirely other level.
Of the entire group, nobody was believed to have had a worse relationship with Allen than Rondo, which is why it wasn’t a huge surprise that Rondo was the player singled out in Allen’s Facebook photo response.
Pierce shed light on the pair’s relationship in a 2015 interview with Jackie MacMullan, suggesting it was more of an Allen problem than a Rondo problem.
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"I remember when Rondo re-signed with Boston, we had a little dinner at a restaurant and Ray didn't show up,” Pierce said.
"I know Ray probably didn't like Rondo that much, but it wasn't a fact of not liking somebody. You don't have to like everybody you play with -- it's a matter of showing support.
"Rondo probably didn't like Ray either, but he came to Ray's functions to show, 'Hey, we're together in this.’”
Allen told the Miami Herald that his issues with Rondo went back to 2009. From that piece:
He said the friction with Rondo began in 2009 when Rivers and Celtics president Danny Ainge proposed a trade that would have sent Allen and Rondo to Phoenix for Amare Stoudemire, Leandro Barbosa and the 14th overall pick in the 2010 draft. Allen said that, at the time, Ainge and Rivers ‘didn’t get along’ with Rondo.
‘So, I called him and I told him, ‘Hey they’re supposedly trading us to Phoenix because you and Danny and Doc don’t get along,’ Allen said. ‘So, whatever you can do.’ … ‘So, for some reason, I guess he thought that I was … that I had something against him, or there were some issues. And I had no issues with him. I won with him.’ Now, Allen says if Rondo ‘had issue with me, that’s on him … ‘I have a way of going about doing my job that, I want everyone to come and play their hardest and come in and do their job and I can’t, I don’t worry myself with things I can’t control,’ Allen said.
The biggest piece Rondo has spoken regarding Allen recently was when he responded to news of Allen’s retirement by saying he thought he had already retired. There’s a lot he probably could have said Monday night. It’s interesting that he was the only one who kept quiet.