Paul Pierce Still Angry With Ray Allen’s Decision to Leave Boston


They say time heals all wounds, and maybe it does, but Paul Pierce is gonna need a little more before he gets over Ray Allen’s decision to bolt Beantown for South Beach. Via the Boston Herald: “Almost nine months have passed since Ray Allen joined the Miami Heat, and Paul Pierce still hasn’t talked to his former teammate. As Allen discovered during Miami’s March 18 visit to the Garden, Celtics fans can be an aggressively unforgiving lot. Pierce doesn’t consider his own feelings about Allen that extreme. But as the Celtics captain admitted this week in anticipation of last night’s game against the Heat, he’s still not ready to put Allen back on his calling list. ‘One day when it’s all said and done, I’m sure we’ll talk about it off to the side,’ Pierce said when asked if he was capable of forgiving Allen for joining the Celtics’ bitterest conference rival. ‘But not right now.’ Pierce has this much in common with Celtics fans. He still can’t conceive of Allen’s decision. ‘It definitely hurt me,’ Pierce said. ‘Say we play the Lakers for the championship, and two years later I go and sign with the Lakers. That’s the equivalent of what he did.’ Allen, told of Pierce’s comments last night, quietly nodded. ‘I miss playing with Paul, and being his teammate,’ he said. ‘There’s a lot of sentimentality from me being there and walking with those guys. That doesn’t change. I wouldn’t take that away from him. I respect him feeling that way. Those feelings are justified. I’m not on his team anymore, I’m not helping them win. His feelings are hurt, but he knows, he understands. He and I can look at each other and exchange a glance, because he knows what I had to do. He knows.'”