Is it OK to hate Ray Allen?

A quick clarification: I'm talking about sports hate, not actual hate. Actual hate is reserved for Jerry Sandusky or Joe Paterno or any of the truly evil people in the world. I'll even allow actual hate for the folks who make your life miserable every single day -- the boss who uses the "people skills" he learned while on a (company-paid) retreat in Jackson Hole to perfect his ability to be a condescending, soulless subhuman is an example that works for me.

But Ray Allen? Look, we really don't know these guys -- never believe the people in the media who try to tell you that they do, in fact, you should trust them least -- but there is nothing in Ray Allen's history to suggest he's anything but what we have been told over the last decade and a half: hard-working, smart, stays out of trouble, the very definition of a professional. Throw in some very significant charity work and the obvious on-court success and this isn't a candidate for actual hate. 

But sports hate? Absolutely justified. I might not agree with you, but it's a perfectly legitimate stance for any real Celtics fan on July 9, 2012. 

Forget that his best days are behind him -- Ray Allen has signed on (or looks like he will sign on) with the enemy. He will spend the next three years chest-bumping LeBron James and Dwyane Wade and sitting at the knee of Pat Riley. There are 30 teams in the NBA (didn't even need Wikipedia for that one, but I suspect my streak of using it to confirm something in a column will extend to 2,338 by the time we are done here). If Allen really didn't want to come back to Boston -- which seems to the be the case -- and the Celtics really didn't want him back -- which seems to be the case -- there were 29 other teams to play for. Twenty-seven of them would have been inoffensive to any Celtics fan. Only the Lakers and Heat were registered under unacceptable (sorry to those trying to make the argument for the Knicks as a "rival" -- anyone under the age of 40 has had maybe one year of a Celtics-Knicks rivalry. That was 1984 and the mini-rivalry proved to be as sturdy, sadly, as Bernard King's knees).

Unless Ray Allen is the single most delusional athlete on the planet today -- and I don't think he's in the top 500 -- he had to know this when he agreed to go to the Heat. They are the team that has knocked the Celtics out of the playoffs the last two seasons. Allen signing with the Heat makes them better -- think he'll have any open 3-pointers? -- and weakens the Celtics. Plus it officially ends an era that means an awful lot to fans that had gone nearly a quarter-century without a title, without relevance on the NBA landscape. It feels like betrayal to fans because it is a betrayal. Allen could have gone to the Clippers or Rockets or Knicks or Suns, but he wanted to play for the Heat, wanted to play for the team that will very likely beat the Celtics again in June (it says here that the Celtics enter the 2012-13 season as the second-best team in the Eastern Conference). It just seems like the easy way out, the path of least resistance. Go to Miami, win 65 games, beat Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo, win title.  

And that's why I take zero issue with those who are down on Ray Allen right now. Is it a business? Of course. We all understand that. Are all Celtics fans pissed at Allen? Nah, but it does seem to me to be about 70-30 against (that's taking the always sure-fire pulse of friends and sports radio callers). Is it as simple as Allen turning his back on the Celtics? Obviously not, there are deeper issues on both sides (money, disrespect, problems with teammates and coaches, lack of communication about trades, playing time, loyalty, all the usual hits).

The comparison I'm hearing the most is Johnny Damon leaving for the Yankees, which seems clean at first glance but doesn't really work for me because a) Damon left for more money, Allen left for less, and b) Allen is higher on his sports pantheon than is Damon -- Allen is a first-ballot Hall of Fame lock while Damon isn't a Hall of Famer by the loosest definition. Also this: Heat-Celtics isn't Yankees-Red Sox. It's actually a lousy fit. 

Nope, this is a new one (and new casting for Allen, who has never played the heavy). Ray Allen was a terrific Celtic. In my opinion, he was the MVP of the 2008 NBA finals. He played hurt, played hard and played (mostly) very, very well. Without Allen there probably are still only 16 banners in the Boston Garden. 

And he's going to get booed when he comes back to Boston for the first time. I'm convinced of that. That may not be the appropriate way to honor Allen's impact to this franchise. That may not be what Allen wants to hear, or what his friends and family want to hear. But you can't have it all. If he wanted to be a Celtic, there was evidently a $12 million deal on the table. But he didn't want to play for the Celtics anymore. That's fine, but to want to play for the Heat more than you want to play for the Celtics means you are going to get booed in Boston. That's how it works. 

It won't always be boos. Red Sox fans don't feel the way they felt six years ago about Damon. Ray Allen will have his day and all will be forgiven. But that's not going to be anytime soon. There will be bitterness and more gossipy Rondo stories and there will probably be the image of Allen and LeBron hugging on a stage after winning an NBA title together. That kind of stuff takes a while -- fair or not -- for fans to be able to digest. It's not fair to expect them to look at this rationally, they should take it personally. That is what being a good sports fan is all about (and here's hoping Allen -- who correctly praised Celtics fans for sticking around at the end of that atrocity in Game 6 -- isn't bothered by apathy, because he's about to see a lot of empty seats for the first 24 minutes of his home games), isn't it? Passion above everything else. 

Bottom line? Ray Allen had every right to go to Miami. And Celtics fans have every right to (sports) hate him for it. At least for now.