Legendary sharpshooter Ray Allen made a career decision in 2012 when he left the Boston Celtics to join the Miami Heat.
While he surely was prepared for backlash as a result of the move, he most likely wasn’t expecting to receive threats to his life.
Unfortunately, Allen recently admitted that he did in fact receive death threats from Celtics fans after making the move from Boston to South Florida.
“What is it now? It’s 2020 so you’re talking about nine years now,” Allen began. “I’ve gotten so much hate, death threats, vitriol from Boston fans. Obviously these guys have kind of removed me from the Big 3, said so many negative things about me and I haven’t had one negative thing to say about any of them.”
Allen played a large role in creating the modern superteam mold when he was acquired by Boston in 2007. The move allowed the Celtics to join Allen with fellow stars Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce
In 2008, the Celtics won the NBA Finals with Allen contributing heavily in the title chase.
He remained in Boston until 2012, when he rejected a two-year offer by the Celtics and accepted a three-year deal with the Heat. Due to the fact that Celtics were still battling with the Heat atop the Eastern Conference, he received major backlash from the Boston faithful.
Still, to hear that Allen received death threats from Boston fans is extremely troubling. While fans within that area are known to be some of the most aggressive in the country, it’s still completely unacceptable.
In the 2013 NBA Finals, Allen shot perhaps the biggest 3-pointer of his career, when he nailed a last-second jumper to tie up a win-or-go-home Game 6.
The Heat went on to win Game 6 in overtime and then completed the comeback in Game 7.