Paul Pierce still hasn’t forgiven Ray Allen for joining the Heat in 2012: “I would’ve been better off him going to the Lakers”
In the past 12 years, Paul Pierce has discussed Ray Allen‘s controversial departure hundreds of times. To this day, the Hall of Fame forward still does not accept that, of all the teams Allen could have joined, he chose the Miami Heat.
Pierce’s commitment to the rivalry against the Heat runs so deep that he would have liked it more if Allen had joined the Los Angeles Lakers, the iconic franchise rivals of the Boston Celtics, instead.
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The Truth revealed this surprising revelation recently on Shannon Sharpe’s show “Club Shay Shay. For him, it just did not – and will never – sit right with him that the sharpshooter joined forces with LeBron James and the Heat, their biggest enemies in the Eastern Conference at that time.
“That ain’t how this works,” Pierce said of Allen’s 2012 departure. “I would have been better off him going to the Lakers…I would have been cooler with him doing that if we had that conversation.”
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Pierce’s shocking alternative for Allen
From the days of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird to Kobe Bryant facing Boston’s “Big 3” of Pierce, Allen and Kevin Garnett, their legendary clashes of the Lakers and Celtics made for one of the most entertaining and intense rivalries of all time.
The two teams have played against each other 12 times in the finals, with Boston holding a 9-3 record. Currently, the Celtics have the most NBA titles in the league with 18, followed by the Lakers with 17.
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This is why it’s shocking that a die-hard Celtic like Pierce, who got a taste of this historic rivalry in 2008 and 2010, revealed that Bryant’s Lakers would’ve been a better option for Allen.
Although it wouldn’t have been possible due to L.A.’s salary cap situation and the Lakers not being considered, Pierce believes that Ray joining the team that beat Boston was simply unacceptable.
“It was absolutely where he went,” the 2008 Finals MVP said. “You got to understand, we’ve been battling on LeBron for the last four or five years…The Heat aren’t our rival; it’s LeBron. He’s our rival…We just played them in the playoffs a year ago. Like, you can’t go play with them.”
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Ray didn’t communicate with Paul
The Celtics — Heat rivalry was at its peak in the early 2010s, with multiple clashes in the playoffs. The turning point was the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals, which went to Game 7 and was a turning point for both teams.
James would go on to win his first title and Finals MVP in Miami, while the fallout of Boston’s “Big 3” began. Then, as a free agent, Allen joined Miami after the Celtics’ mistreatment. His rocky relationship with point guard Rajon Rondo pushed him to the brink.
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Pierce said he understood where Allen was coming from, but wished he had talked to him first before making his decision
“We was a brotherhood…We built something here. If there was an issue with the contract, maybe there’s something I can talk to Danny about or Wick. Like, lean on us first,” he said. “That’s the issue I had. I was like, ‘damn, we couldn’t even get a phone call or nothing.'”
The brotherhood has returned as the “Big 3” publicly reconciled during KG’s retirement ceremony. A year before that, Pierce had his own public reunion with Allen at his Hall of Fame induction in 2021.
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Although the “Big 3” has long put this rift behind them, Pierce seems to still have troubled understanding Allen’s decision to join the Heat. Because of his competitive hate against Miami, the Truth, as crazy as it sounds, wished it had been the Lakers instead.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Oct 17, 2025, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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