It's safe to say that Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen aren't really friends. Allen's strained relationship with his former teammates is well known up to this point, but the animosity was recently revived when excerpts from Allen's new book were released to the public. Among those excerpts were many criticisms of Rondo.
The Boston Globe asked Rondo about Allen's book and what his thoughts on them were. Rondo responded in a way that much defines where their relationship is at. He criticized Allen's choice to bring up old problems now and claimed it was just for attention. The only reason he was using Rondo's name was for publicity.
"He just wants attention," Rondo said. "I need actually some sales from [the book], only [publicity] it's been getting is from my name. I need some percentage or something. His people contact my people or something. The only pub I've been hearing about is when he mentions my name."
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"Obviously that man is hurting," Rondo said of Allen. "I don't know if it's financially, I don't know if it's mentally. He wants to stay relevant. I am who I am. I don't try to be something I'm not. I can't say the same for him. He's looking for attention. I'm a better human being than that. I take accountability for my actions.
"Certain [stuff] happens in my life, I man up. But he has a whole other agenda."
Rondo is clearly not happy to be mentioned by Allen in this way. He also didn't deny anything in the book so it seems their relationship is just as strained now as it was then. However, while Rondo is clearly frustrated, he did leave an opening to maybe talking to Allen and potentially getting on better terms.
"I just want to talk to him man-to-man," Rondo said. "I don't have a problem with the man. I haven't said anything. The problem is maybe he feels some type of way because the reunion trip thing came out. All I did was ask the rest of the guys. I'm the point guard, so I'm going to organize the trip. I asked the rest of my guys what y'all want to do and they said no. What am I supposed to do?
"I'll be the fall guy, but damn now you in the book talking about this and that. And for me as a teammate, I probably supported [Allen] more than anybody on the team, all [his stuff] that [he] had going on in Boston. I wasn't mad that [he] went to Miami.
Teammates don't always have to like each other to be successful. That's not a secret among the NBA, but it's still a bit of a surprise to see two former champions having such open dislike of each other. Perhaps one day they'll be able to work out their differences and reunite some of those former great Celtics teams.