Ray Allen Claims He Had No Choice But To Leave The Boston Celtics

Oct 19, 2012 04:42 PM EDT

Newly acquired Miami Heat sharp shooter Ray Allen finally opened up to give reasons to why he made his decision to leave the Boston Celtics and join the rival Heat.

Allen says that, among other factors, his decision largely came down to money (even though he took less than Boston was offering to sign with the Heat).

Allen recently did an interview with WMEN a Miami sports radio station, here's an excerpt of Allen's interview:

How did you deal with all the negativity of you leaving Boston because you chose to come here?

"Well it was just really a shame because on one hand you could say so many great things about me as a player and my impact on the floor, and not only on the floor but off the floor, like we did so many great things in the community - not only as a team, but as individuals - and that was my community and I support it as much as I could. We had some foundation initiatives that we still continue to do, so that doesn't change me. It was a business decision and the team put me in the position where we had to move. We had to go. Miami was a better choice for us based on what the team was doing, so it wasn't, don't boo me, boo the team in a sense. Now it's out of my control. ... When this contract situation came down, everybody in my circle - mom, family, brother, sister, friends from college, people who watched me since I was in high school and since I was in college - nobody wanted me to resign in that situation because they thought, 'There [is] so much left in you and this team isn't taking care of you or treating you right.' That's the way I felt and it was like, if you are going to come and not put out a good contract on the table then, hey, we gotta think about going somewhere else."

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