Before the arrival of Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, the Boston Celtics were a team that won 24 games in the 2006-07 NBA season.
In their first year together, the Boston Celtics’ big three led them to 66 wins, the largest single-season turnaround in NBA history.
In the 2008 NBA Finals, the Celtics defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in six games, and Paul Pierce was named Finals MVP.
This appeared to be the beginning of a Celtics dynasty, but injuries and age took a toll on the Celtics trio in the years following their title win.
After appearing in the NBA Finals again in 2010, the Celtics were never able to reach the top of the mountain again.
The Celtics’ Big Three run effectively ended in 2012 when Ray Allen left to join the rival Miami Heat.
Paul Pierce talked about why Allen specifically joined LeBron James and why it hurt him and his teammates in Boston.
He would have rather sent Allen to the Celtics’ biggest rival, the Los Angeles Lakers.
“(What upset us) was definitely where he went. You have to understand we’ve been battling LeBron for the last four or five years.
“The Heat are not our competition. LeBron is our competition. Hey, we just played them in the playoffs a year ago. We can’t play with them.
“I think he should have gone to the Lakers, and he’s our biggest rival.
“The biggest problem was the lack of conversation.”
“If Ray had stayed, we might have won two games.”
Allen was with the Heat from 2012 to 2014, during which time he won his second NBA championship in 2013.
Allen famously hit a game-tying 3-pointer in Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs, and the Heat won Game 7.
Ray Allen was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018.
To this day, Pierce and Kevin Garnett have been vocal about their displeasure with Allen joining the Heat and LeBron.