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SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – With the same ease he has shown throughout his NBA career, Ray Allen closed the basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Friday night with a thoughtful speech in which he to the Boston Celtics 2008 team.
During the week in which Allen's fractured relationship with some of the 2008 Celtics team members, including Rajon Rondo, hovered over his induction, Allen remained above the fray. He suggested that former teammates Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce will join him soon in Springfield, and also congratulated Danny Ainge for assembling this Big Three.
Ray Allen, one day before entering the Hall of Fame, said his stay in Boston was the "most important moment of my life", even though he had not heard most of his former Celtics teammates this week.
Doc Rivers, who coached the Celtics on the 2008 NBA crown, said it really hurt him to witness the chilling relationship between his former players, especially before Ray Allen was inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Ray Allen, Grant Hill, Jason Kidd and Steve Nash are the stars of a group of 13 people whose star was dedicated to Springfield Friday night.
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Ainge and Mike Longabardi, assistant coach of the 2008 team, were among the participants at Friday's ceremony at Springfield Symphony Hall, where 13 new members were inducted.
Allen's first reference to the Celtics drew shouts of joy from the fans sitting on the balcony.
"In my 12th year, I teamed up with some Hall of Famers from Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett," said Allen after the cheers subsided. "Never in my wildest dreams I could have imagined that I would end up Ray Allen praises 2008 Boston Celtics and teammates at Hall of Fame ceremony step."
Allen emphasized how difficult it was to win titles, but he kept the focus of his speech thanking everyone for his basketball odyssey.
"I do not believe in talent, I'm here because I've worked hard all my life," Allen said. "Without this work, no one in this room would know who I am outside of my family, so for all the children around the world who look, pay attention and yearn to be one of us, or even work and watch the magic trick that you will continue ".
Allen achieved 2,973 points at 3 career points, the highest level in the history of the NBA. He won two titles (the other with the Heat in 2013) and was named three-time star for three different teams: the Celtics, Seattle SuperSonics and the Bucks.
Allen opened his speech by noting that he wanted to "be like Mike growing up", in reference to his idol, Michael Jordan then praised presenter Reggie Miller as "the best shooter of my life".
Allen may have hinted at his disordered outing from Boston to join rival Heat when he listed all the cities he played – Storrs, Connecticut (for the University of Connecticut, which he was number 5 in 1996) . Draft), Seattle, Boston and Miami – and then suggested that the only difficult thing was to leave these cities.
Allen made the headlines earlier this week when he hinted that he was not expecting to be congratulated by his former teammates from the 2008 team.
During an appearance on ESPN's site, The Jump, Friday, Pierce admitted that Allen's book published this year had [on the 2008 team] in the wrong way, "but congratulated Allen for his induction into the Hall.
"[The differences with the 2008 team are] for him and the other guys to understand. I have no problem with Ray, "said Pierce, who negotiated peace with Allen last summer. Congratulations. Whatever he has, he deserves it. His name will be there forever and I congratulate you, Ray. "
During a visit to Boston on Tuesday, the former Celtics coach, Doc Rivers, said he was appalled at not being able to fix the fractured relationship of his 2008 team. Rivers spoke about this. team saying that if he had a match for his life, he would choose this group to win it.
On Friday, Garnett released a photo of the 2008 title team – including himself the Larry O'Brien Trophy next to Allen – and Rivers' quote on the team on his Area 21 Twitter page. It was subtitled "Ubuntu", the rallying cry that the Celtics 2008 adopted.
UBUNTU ☘️ pic.twitter.com/x8kYAWmm8s
– Zone 21 of KG (@ KGArea21) September 7, 2018
But Allen Allen's speech sums up a night in which other members of the group, such as Grant Hill, Jason Kidd and Steve Nash, focused on recognizing those who helped them.
The legend of the coach, Lefty Driesell, stole the scene with a laughing speech in which he jokingly played about his 86 year old. Later, he told the audience, "The older you get, the more you try to remember names and go to the bathroom."
Nash encouraged children to embrace their passions by noting, "You will never be more alive than when you give something to everything you have."
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