January 7, 2009
Celtics miss shot at basketball immortality
Way to go, Celtics.
You acquired superstar forward Kevin Garnett this week, NBA title hopes abound again in Boston and so on and on and on. I congratulate you.
Thanks to general manager Danny Ainge, things are promising, at least from a big-picture point of view. But there is one detail that is displeasing.
You waived Allan Ray, Danny.
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Yes: Allan Ray, who was all set to back up Ray Allen, the star guard you acquired last month in a trade with from Seattle.
Allan Ray and Ray Allen. Get it? The draft-day trade for Ray Allen meant these nearly mirror-image namesakes were on the same roster -- at last. It seemed we could admit that magic is real and miracles are, too.
But Ainge's Celtics released Allan Ray last week, and the young scorer, who buried 41.4 percent of his three-point attempts and started five games in his first NBA season, signed for two years and $2 million with the Italian Serie A team Lottomatica Roma.
Allan Ray, it seems, is not walking through that door. Unless Lottomatica snaps up Ray Allen (which would be fantastic), then yes, that's the blood- curdling scream of a dream being crushed. Thanks for the consideration, Danny.
May I take you back to the 1989-90 season, when Johnny Dawkins and Hersey Hawkins both started for Philadelphia? Hawkins-Dawkins wasn't on par with Allan RayRay Allen, but neither is Ray AllenTony Allen, the Celtics' current starter-backup pairing at the shooting guard position.
(Trenton Hassell and Sam Cassell helped Garnett reach the Western Conference finals three years ago, but they pronounce their names differently.)
Allan Ray is blameless. He's riding his Vespa to a fortune greater than the
$687,456 Boston was going to pay him this season.
Ray Allen will earn $16 million, and, according to Ray Allen's agent, Lon Babby, he had no comment on the departure of Allan Ray.
Danny, I'd like to know. What's it like living in a world in which keeping Allan Ray in Boston is not worth $312,544?
I called to ask you that, but your team's media services coordinator, Brian Olive, told me that you're on vacation with your family after an exhausting week assembling the 7-for-1 megatrade for KG.
You deserve a rest. But this message is waiting for you when you return: Henceforth, you will be known as Ainge Denny.
Or maybe Einge Danny.
I haven't decided yet.
Mixx it!
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