Big Baby believes Ray Allen should be invited to '08 Celtics reunion
Next season marks the 10-year anniversary of the Boston Celtics' 17th championship, and Rajon Rondo is planning a celebratory trip for that 2007-08 club - without Ray Allen.
Glen Davis, who's retired now but was a rookie on that team, believes Allen is worthy of an invite.
"Yes, Ray should be invited to the reunion," he said Friday on FS1's "Undisputed."
"He was a big part of that team. ... Ray got us out of a lot of situations. Yeah, you should invite the man. I would love to see Ray, I haven't seen him in a long time."
That said, "Big Baby" does see Rondo's point. Allen left to sign with the Heat in free agency in 2012, right after Miami knocked Boston out in the East Finals. Never mind the sharpshooter's impact on the Heat, or the fact he went on to win another ring with them in 2013, but they were clearly a rival.
"He wasn't supposed to go there. He was supposed to go somewhere else," Davis said.
The 31-year-old said the 2008 Celtics - behind the Big Three of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Allen - were very close, until Rondo began to blossom into a star.
"We were an extremely close-knit basketball team," he said. "I just think when Rondo started to appear, and started to (say) 'hey, here I am.' It wasn't a mutual, 'hey, this is our new shining star with Ray.' It was more of a 'hey, this is KG, Paul, Ray Allen's team.' And I just feel like it could've been stopped."
Even now, Rondo has a reputation as having a "difficult" personality. The current Chicago Bulls point guard, who seems destined to join his fifth team in as many years this summer, was an easy target when things went south in Boston.
In Davis' opinion, though, Rondo didn't deserve all the blame.
"But, Ray Allen's not no easy person to get along with," he said. "Don't think Jesus Shuttlesworth can walk on water now. Let me stop that right now, because Rondo has his points, because Ray Allen does have his times when he's Ray Allen and he needs to get the ball, and Doc (Rivers) doesn't give him the ball because he gives it to Paul Pierce."
Davis averaged 7.6 points and 4.1 rebounds per game over four seasons in Beantown.