Ray Allen: MJ warned me Celtics would struggle to defend 2008 title
The Boston Celtics weren't able to replicate their success in 2008 from the season prior, as Michael Jordan apparently expected.
After trading for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen during the 2007 offseason to form a Big Three with Paul Pierce, the Celtics found immediate and incredible success. They reeled off eight straight victories en route to a 67-win season, which they capped off by capturing the franchise's 17th championship and first in 22 years.
That summer, Jordan offered Allen the following reality check:
"You guys got lucky. Winning one is lucky. Winning two, now you would be doing something," Allen recounted in his upcoming book "From the Outside: My Journey through Life and the Game I Love," according to Boston.com's Nicole Yang.
Jordan, who won two sets of back-to-back-to-back titles, warned Allen of an issue that would arise among his teammates:
"'The major problem you're going to have to worry about is your role players not wanting to play their roles anymore,' Rondo claims Michael said. 'They go home after the season, and everybody tells them how great they are, and it goes to their heads. They come back and want more minutes and more shots.'"
Allen wasn't really buying it, especially after the team opened 2008-09 with a 27-3 record, but eventually saw the prophecy become fulfilled.
"(Rajon) Rondo, (Kendrick Perkins), and Glen 'Big Baby' Davis demanded larger roles," Allen wrote.
He noted there's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting a larger role, provided it happens within the flow of the offense, which was the problem. He said Davis took shots out of rhythm and Rondo altered the dynamic in which the team thrived the previous year.
"I didn't have quite the same feeling about the direction we were heading in as I had the year before," Allen wrote. "No Ubuntu in this group. Too often we had to remind guys to move the ball around, instead of looking out for themselves."
That lack of Ubuntu saw the Celtics lose in the second round to the Orlando Magic and continue to fall short in the ensuing years before Allen left for the Miami Heat in 2012 and the club dissipated and rebuilt from there.