Every time the Celtics and Heat play it’s must-see TV. First of all both teams have championship aspirations and are usually found at the top of the standings in the Eastern Conference. Second, they don’t like each other at all. There have been numerous scuffles and incidents in the games between the two teams. Now there is just more fuel to the fiery rivalry with Ray Allen choosing to go to South Beach this offseason as opposed to staying in Boston and keeping the Big Three together. Allen played his first game against his former team on the NBA’s opening night and when he tried to exchange pleasantries with former teammate Kevin Garnett, Allen was rebuffed and it has turned into a story that won’t go away. Allen has turned into public enemy number one and this story has kept the bad blood boiling between two of the game’s best teams.
Danny Ainge joined WEEI in Boston with the Big Showto talk about if he is surprised how this Ray Allen thing has blown up, whether he has spoken to Ray Allen since he left Boston, what he thought about the way the Celtics played against Miami on opening night, on the offseason the Celtics had and if he felt Rajon Rondo’s foul on Dwyane Wade was indeed a punk play.
If he is surprised how this Ray Allen thing has blown up:
“No I actually had the same reaction that Ray had. That’s KG. KG, that’s who he is and it’s a little refreshing actually. It’s different than anybody else.”
Did you see this quite often when you played?
“I think Ray obviously had motives to come over and say hi to the team and I don’t think KG was interested in any of that. KG is a guy who is focused on the game and nobody knows that better than Ray.”
Whether he has spoken to Ray Allen since Allen has left Boston:
“I’ve tried to reach out to Ray. (Host: What’s been the reaction?) Ray doesn’t have the same number and I didn’t even realize that until recently but he hadn’t responded and I just thought he wasn’t responding.”
What he thought of the way Boston played the other night against Miami:
“I did not think we played well and I didn’t think we were very aggressive, offensively or defensively. Offensively I felt like we were trying to take shortcuts and defensively I didn’t feel like we were aggressive throughout the course of the game. We didn’t attack them, we were reacting to what they were doing. I really like our team and think our team is going to be good but I didn’t think we played very well.”
On the offseason the Celtics had:
If he thinks Rajon Rondo’s foul on Dwyane Wade was a punk play:
“I dont think so, no. I thought it was, Wade got by Rondo and Rondo grabbed him to prevent the lay-in and sometimes you get yourself into ugly positions. I don’t think he meant to grab him around the neck. It just happened that way.”
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