JulesWinnfield wrote:andrewww wrote:This forum is hilarious.
If anything, Ray Ray deserves more heat (no pun intended) than either Lebron or KD. You can justify Lebron and KD leaving for situations to enhance their legacy better with multiple rings after they had given the organizations that drafted them the better part of a decade to win a title.
Ray Ray left Boston because he felt slighted by management and joined the Heat for less money than what Boston offered. He did it to piss off Celtics management with the 'its a business' tactic just like Boston shopped Ray Ray for the betterment of the team.
People these days dont know how to differentiate principle. No two situations are ever the same. Get over it? Barcelona to this day will never forgive Figo for his betrayal in joining Real Madrid. Easy for people to say 'just drop it'.
So in other words Ray Allen was worse because he showed pride and didn't want to come crawling back to a management he felt had handled him improperly on multiple levels. In fact he felt he'd rather make them pay for those perceived slights
Understand that in admitting to not being able to identify with or understand his reasoning (and in fact bashing him for it), you basically snitch on yourself for not having an ounce of self respect. You can't identify with pride. This is basically what you tell us here. You are an employers dream
Aside from the fact that Allen was on his last legs, there is the other layer of perceived disrespect that Durant could never in a million years identify with when making his decision
You are trying soooooooooo hard to prove it is different, but it really isn't.
Level of player and all that stuff is meaningless. Players are human. Players aren't thinking 'well he is a bench player and not a superstar so it doesn't matter.' Humans are more complex than that. Ray betrayed his teammates for their biggest rival (Lebron vs Celtics was 10x the rivalry that GSW and OKC ever were at the time). It's the same exact thing and if anything what Ray did was a bit more severe considering the level of rivalry. It doesn't matter if you perceived the players as old or on their last legs. The Celtics were 10 minutes away from the Finals after blowing a 3-2 series lead, and Ray left a month later to the team that beat them. You can jump through all the hoops in the world to try to differentiate it, but it's really not all that different.
And your whole thing about pride and what not is not really a great point. The Celtics literally traded Pierce for the #3 pick in 2005, but Pierce essentially killed the deal by not committing to the Blazers long term. Rondo was constantly in trade talks. Good management is always looking for a way to improve the team, and I think players have every right to do what they want, but they aren't free from criticism on how they treat their teammates. These are two different identities (players and management). Ray leaving is fine, but him not even taking Pierce's calls before leaving is soft as hell. It's the way he did it that stings the Celtic players.
I don't have any issues with Ray trying to sting Celtics' management, but by going to the Heat (and not a team like the Spurs) and not taking Pierce's calls, it was a pretty giant FU to the players and coaching staff also, which is what I had an issue with.