Former Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers wants Ray Allen at Kevin Garnett’s jersey retirement ceremony when their former team honors he Hall of Fame nominee next season.
The feud between Allen and members of the Banner 17 title core has shown little sign of thawing since Allen and former teammate Paul Pierce made nice in 2017.
The rest of their one-time teammates have not proven so magnanimous, holding onto the perceived betrayal after the UConn product decamped to their rival for less money.
Allen maintains he was not respected for the level of contribution he provided, and also refuses to budge in the decade-long dispute.
Rivers hopes he can help heal the rift despite all the failures to do so to this point, noting (via ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk) he’ll “make the right calls — that doesn’t mean the right things will happen,” though.
Doc Rivers wants Ray Allen at KG's jersey retirement next season and he says he has a role to play in ending the former Celtics’ beef with Allen https://t.co/tG8ZfUs6hC
— Ohm Youngmisuk (@NotoriousOHM) February 22, 2020
“I think [the feud is] ridiculous, but it’s still there, with some guys, not with every guy,” added Rivers.
Pierce’s amends with Allen in 2017 teased a reconciliation might be possible for the former teammates, but the rest of his peers have yet to come around.
“I have a role in it,” Rivers offered. “I just think we won a title with Ray and we need to get over it.”
After one of their longtime rivals recently passed with the untimely accidental death of Los Angeles Lakers luminary Kobe Bryant, many across the league — including former Banner 17-era center Kendrick Perkins — publicly expressed a desire to move past comparatively trivial disputes like this one.
Whether that may become an opportunity to put this conflict to bed remains to be seen, and may be the last good opportunity to do so for some time, with Pierce’s Hall of Fame future uncertain and his number already in the rafters.
It seems unlikely Allen will get the same nod by the Celtics, at least without this wound being healed.
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