Udonis Haslem Responds to Former Celtics' Jabs Regarding Ray Allen

Former longtime Miami Heat forward Udonis Haslem called for members of the last Boston Celtics championship team to get over guard Ray Allen's 2012 move from the Celtics to the Heat.

In an interview on the Joe Rose Show (h/t Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel), Haslem defended his former teammate: 

"I mean, they got to let that go. I think when you get to a point where you're a free agent, you have the opportunity to make the best decision for you. Quality of life: Boston, Miami? Ahh, you guys can figure that one out. ... I mean, and I understand, because at that time it was somewhat of a rivalry between us and Boston. But even when they had Ray we beat 'em. So it wasn't like Ray came and helped us get over the edge."

He went on to explain that the Heat had already beat the Celtics with Allen as a member in the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals (language NSFW): "It's not like the year before with Ray they beat us. Put it this way, it wasn't the similar situation to maybe Kevin Durant going to the team that beat him. It was, you got your ass whooped with Ray, and we got Ray and we whooped your ass again."

Haslem's comments came on the heels of a 2007-08 Celtics reunion during TNT's Area 21 segment Monday between Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo, Kendrick Perkins and Glen Davis.

They discussed the Allen situation at length, and KG explained why there is still bad blood between the two sides, per ESPN.com's Chris Forsberg: 

"Everybody's asking us, 'Where's Ray?' People don't understand that this is real life for us. The situation with Ray is very sensitive. I think that when we all talked about doing this reunion tour, we were talking about guys who we consider loyal and part of this group. Just being honest, my two cents, when Ray decided to go to the Heat, I felt like he moved on. And he went to pursue another ring, he got another ring, shouts to him. And that's it. There was no other Wizards, it wasn't no other Spurs, it wasn't no other Heat. It was all Celtics invited to this."

Allen helped lead Boston to a championship in 2008, but after the Celtics were bounced from the playoffs by the Heat in 2012, he made the leap to Miami.

The likely future Hall of Famer was a key figure in the Heat's 2013 championship, as he hit multiple clutch shots against the San Antonio Spurs during the NBA Finals.

Boston hasn't been back to the Finals since Allen's departure, but it is the No. 1 seed in this year's Eastern Conference and one win away from reaching the conference final.