Fans are always happy to see the drama of "spending all the robbery brothers in the air, meeting each other and laughing and hating each other", but the reality is not a fairy tale, and some of the hatred is as deep as the Antarctic glacier, which is difficult to dissolve, and the Celtic Triumvirate of that year was one of them. In the past 2 days, the discussion around the real relationship between Garnett, Pierce and Ray Allen has begun to heat up again. So, how did the three superstars who won the championship side by side get into trouble?
Yesterday at the scene of the 75 superstar event, the camera captured 2 intriguing shots. One is that when Allen was introduced, he and James punched intimately, but Garnett and Pierce on the side turned a blind eye and looked indifferent; the other was that Garnett and Allen had no communication, and the former had talked to Cowy Leonard next to him in order to resolve the embarrassment. For a moment, people's thoughts flew back to the eventful autumn of 2012.
But reversals happen every day, and there is no shortage today. Just today, Pierce and Garnett actually posted a group photo of the Green Army's big three at the scene of the 75 superstar event. In the shot, the three people in suits and shoes move in unison and are all smiling, just like the expressions the three of them had when they held up their jerseys at the first press conference of joining the Green Army. Garnett wrote in an epigraph: "Brothers! Aaron then retweeted it, as if the old grudge didn't exist at all.
In 2007, the formation of the three giants of the Green Army was a sensation, and in 2008, the three won the championship for the Green Army for 22 years, which was also the 17th crown in team history, and it took the Lakers 12 years to catch up. In 2010, the Green Army re-entered the finals, leading the old enemy 3-2 but was overturned. In 2012, marked by Allen's switch to the Heat, the image of the Big Three of the Green Army in the hearts of fans collapsed.
In fact, when the Green Army introduced Garnett, Aaron still had to take credit. In April 2020, an interview with then-Green Army chief Angie revealed that when he left the Timberwolves, Garnett once swung between the Lakers and the Green Army, and the Green Army was also worried that Garnett would slap his ass and leave in 2008. In order to stabilize him, the Green Army first introduced Aaron, and this trick worked.
In September of the same year, Aaron also confirmed Angie's statement when he was a guest on James Posey's podcast. He said that Garnett had planned to go to the Lakers to partner Kobe. At this point, Angie finds Aaron, who had just been sent to the Greens on the night of the 2007 draft, and wants him to participate in the recruitment of Garnett. "So I called KG and said, 'The Green Army needs you to join, the environment is good, I'm happy when I come,'" Aaron said. In response, Garnett decided to go to Boston (another claim is that Kobe Bryant did not answer Garnett's call) and signed a three-year, 60 million contract with the Green Army.
But Garnett and Aaron's intimacy also stopped at this moment. In the final analysis, the relationship between the two people is not harmonious and related to personality. There have been rumors that Garnett is from the street basketball court, with a special personality, and some of his style is not in the introverted Aaron's eyes, and the two are not fellow travelers. For a long time, both of them routinely maintained a teammate relationship, but did not interact privately. This situation is not uncommon in the NBA's superstar portfolio, and it also has a certain degree of credibility.
Aaron's feud with Rondo further ostracized him in the Green Army. In May 2020, when Green Army center Perkins was a guest on the show, he said that after the news that Paul might leave the Hornets, the Green Army had put the possibility of Paul and Rondo swapping on the table, but garnett and Pierce opposed, only Allen voted in favor and said, "Okay, then let's do it." As a result, his words seemed to poke a honeycomb.
Around the same time, Pierce echoed Perkins' claims as a guest on The Jump and told another story. According to him, Allen approached then-Greens coach Rivers that year and complained that Rondo was isolating himself on the offensive end and not passing the ball. As a result, the words somehow reached Rondo's ears again.
In fact, around the deal between Rondo and Paul, whether it is Garnett, Pierce's side or Allen's side, most of their statements are not selfish, and they are for the sake of the future of the team. Allen's position is, of course, that Paul is stronger than Rondo, and if there is a chance to improve the squad, why not enjoy it? Isn't the Big Four better than the Big Three? But Pierce and Garnett's view is that the Green Army has won the championship at that time, and the baptized Rondo will only get stronger and stronger. Paul was good, but he could not replace the tacit understanding they had established with Rondo. Looking back on this matter today, we will regret that neither side at that time chose to deal with differences in the way it should have, but instead allowed them to expand and become a new fuse.
In short, as Garnett, Pierce and Rondo hugged more and more tightly, Aaron's situation with the Green Army became more and more awkward, which eventually led to his "defection" in the 2012 offseason. When G6 Allen pulled the Heat back from the edge of the cliff with the help of a divine stroke, Aaron, Garnett and Pierce also completely tore off the veil of the warm pulse of the past.
When Pierce was a guest on "All the Smoke" in March 2020, he said that he and Aaron fell out for two reasons, one was that Aaron defected to the Heat, the Green Army's sworn enemy in the East Side, and the other was that "he didn't answer my phone at all." Angie also publicly stated after the Green Army determined the date of Garnett's jersey retirement ceremony that Allen's "surrender" in 2012 may have an impact on his retired jersey in the Green Army.
In fact, according to anecdotes, in the process of Aaron and the Green Army's up and down, Pierce has always played the role of "peacemaker", after all, he has deep roots in Boston and can talk to both sides. According to Pierce, he had already opened his heart with Aaron, and the two had exchanged opinions on the past, "Now there is no disagreement between the two of us." ”
Rivers also didn't want the three lovers who had been so successful to get into such a stiff fight. He once said publicly in an interview: "The tenacity and unity of the three of them made the green army successful, and now it is difficult to reunite the three of them together, but we have not been together for a while." ”
In short, the contradictions of the three giants of the Green Army began with personality discord, and after the rendering of the Rondo trading storm, they finally reached their peak when Allen went south to Miami, but now there are gradual signs of relaxation. Looking back at the group photo of the three people yesterday, whether they think they are hypocritical or not, whether they are acting on the scene or believing that the three people who are getting older have really let go of the past after the passage of time, they are telling future generations a thrilling past and a wonderful entanglement of grievances. (Supine Braces/Hairy)