Kevin Garnett will soon be enshrined among basketball royalty in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer, but he doesn't plan to force a reunion of the now-estranged '08 Boston Celtics. While Garnett and Paul Pierce have always seemed eye to eye, the third cog of that trio, Ray Allen, has not.
Garnett has opened the door for Allen to come to his Hall of Fame induction, despite the long-standing beef about how their tenure in Bean Town came to an end. But he won't be forcing anything behind the scenes:
“That’s not important,” Garnett told Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe on Monday. “I wouldn’t dare ask those guys to do that. I’m not a guy to do that. If someone wants to do something on their own, fine. That ’08 team, I have connections with everybody on that team. We will forever be brothers. Nothing more, nothing less.
“I don’t want any games. If it’s real, it’s real, if it’s not, it’s not. People who want to show their appreciation for whatever it is, that’s cool. I would never put that on any of those guys. That team, those are bros for life.
“That includes Ray.”
Garnett and Pierce were irate with Allen, who left the Celtics for their then-rival Miami Heat in 2012. Pierce hoped to receive a heads-up call, while Garnett couldn't stand that Allen left for the team that tried to one-up their superteam.
Since retiring, Pierce has treated this as water under the bridge, but Garnett has been known to hold grudges, and that has stood true until recently.
Allen was inducted into the Hall of Fame in Sept. 2018, but neither Pierce nor Garnett attended. Only time will tell if Allen pays back that sentiment upon Garnett's induction, or if he takes the high road and attends what's bound to be an unforgettable ceremony that will also include the posthumous induction of Kobe Bryant and that of Tim Duncan.
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