Ray Allen voted to 75th Anniversary All-Celtics Team while Rajon Rondo gets snubbed
The final group of 5 players to be named to the 75th Anniversary All-Celtics Team was announced today on Celtics.com Those players are Robert Parish, Dave Cowens, Bill Sharman, JoJo White, and Ray Allen.
In conjunction with their 75th anniversary, the Boston Celtics are unveiling their 75th Anniversary All-Celtics Team from Jan. 23 through Feb. 3.The team is comprised of 15 players who were selected to the team based upon thousands of votes cast by fans and an official voting panel that included both media members and Celtics historians.
The most controversial inclusion will be Ray Allen. Allen was a 10-time All-Star, but only 3 of those All-Star appearances came during his Celtics stint. And while Ray Allen was a part of the 2008 Big 3, that season was likely the last year he was even the 3rd best player on the Celtics.
Ironically the teammate Allen didn't like, Rajon Rondo, is more deserving if we're just looking at Celtics careers. Rondo played in Boston for 9 seasons to Allen's 6, and by the 2009 playoffs he'd surpass Allen in term's of the team's best players. For the next 4 seasons Rondo would be an All-Star each year and by the 2010 playoffs, he had become the Celtics best player.
Rondo led Boston into that NBA Finals as their top guy. And again in 2012, he was the #1 guy on the team that took LeBron's Wade's and Bosh's Heatles to 7 games in the Eastern Conference Finals.
And not even some one that holds some grudge over Allen leaving. To be both Allen and Doc Rivers should be respected in Boston as members of the 2008 championship team. But Rondo was also on that team, and while Ray was the 3rd best player on that team to Rondo's 4th or 5th, again if we're just talking Celtics' stints, Rondo had the better career in Boston.
You give Rondo the 2008 versions of KG and Pierce in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 and the Celtics win those titles. So either the "fans and an official voting panel that included both media members and Celtics historians" put a strong emphasis on a player's numbers the years he played for a different team and/or they dropped the ball on this.
Other notable omissions include KC Jones, Cedric Maxwell, and Ed Macauley off the top of my head. Maxwell was an odd omission considering both Dennis Johnson and Allen made the team, but then again that shows that a player's contributions on other teams were weighed heavily.
But what were the actual guidelines? I mean Shaq played in Boston for a season, but obviously he doesn't make the cut. Bill Walton won a title here and was a great in Portland, but he too doesn't deserve a spot.
And Rondo is the name that stands out, because he played with Ray and they had beef, but honestly I'd have been fine with the 15 if KC Jones was simply in Ray's place (so both #20 and #9 were omitted). Also I'm too young to fully respect Bill Sharman, so I won't dismiss his contributions, even though I didn't like how he went to coach the Lakers so they could finally win a title.
All in all this 15 man team is better than any 15 man squad any franchise can throw out there, with the exception of the Lakers, and that's just because they have a history of adding other teams' stars from Wilt to Kareem to Shaq to LeBron. But if you took the 15 best players that were drafted by the Celtics, they'd be superior to the 15 best players who were drafted by the Lakers.