Doc Rivers says he wishes 2008 Celtics would all just get along

This weekend, Ray Allen will be inducted into the Hall of Fame, and congratulations will flow to one of the greatest pure shooters the game has ever seen. His teammates from Milwaukee will praise him, LeBron James and the rest of the Maimi Heat will thank him for “the shot”...

And Allen expects there will be crickets from his 2008 Celtics teammates, with whom Allen won a title. Paul Pierce may be the lone exception.

Those players — particularly players like Rajon Rondo and Kevin Garnett — are bitter that Allen bolted Boston for Miami and the rival Heat. The Celtics’ coach of that era, Doc Rivers, has tried to mend the fences and told ESPN’s Chris Forsberg he is frustrated that those guys cannot move on and get along a decade later.

“As years have gone on, things have been fractured, and I hate it. I hate seeing it,” Rivers said Tuesday while in Boston for the annual ABCD Hoop Dreams fundraiser that he runs with current Celtics coach Brad Stevens. “I would love this [to be a] celebration for Ray. Not a lot to say here about it. Ray won us a title. He really did.

“I think he should be celebrated. I think he should be celebrated in Boston. He’s responsible for that banner. If I had one wish, I wish I could do a better job of getting that group back together. I can get a lot of them back together; I just can’t get the whole group. They really should be because they were so close, and it really hurts me to see what’s going on...

“I’ve tried, I can tell you that,” Rivers said. “It’s a lot of little things. Here’s the thing: You have two Hall of Fame guys as far as their competitiveness. The reason that Ray was who he is, Rondo was who he is, Kevin, Paul -- I think Paul has done the right thing as far as throwing out the olive branch. [But] it’s also why we were really good is why they don’t get along: very stubborn, very tough, very competitive and no one wants to give in.”

Rivers sounds like an exhausted parent trying to get his kids to stop fighting.

He gets at the heart of the issue, too: These guys are competitive and stubborn. Things may eventually change — Kobe and Shaq get along now, they matured — but right now a few of the guys are not ready to move on, they have not reached that level of maturity.

They will not congratulate him this weekend when Ray Allen slips on the blazer and enters the Hall of Fame.

Allen will shrug, bask in the moment and love from his other teammates, then go golfing and not worry about any of it.