Ray Allen says return to finals validation for offseason move

There was some reports yesterday that Ray Allen was considering opting out of his contract for next season in Miami because he wanted to return to Boston. Among the flaws of this rumor was the presumption that the Celtics organization wants him back.

Besides, Ray Allen is where he wants to be — back in the NBA Finals. And he played a key role in Game 7 getting the Heat to this point, knocking down threes.

Ray Allen angered a lot of Celtics fans taking less money to bolt to the hated Heat last summer, but he told the Sporting News this is exactly why he did it, he feels validation.

“Yeah, it does,” he said. “When we sat down and we talked about it, we being my family and the people that supported me over my life, we talked about being selfish and giving ourselves the best opportunity to win. We wanted to win, we didn’t want to be in a situation where we were going to struggle. Sitting here in this situation, it’s a great relief. Because sometimes you take a gamble. Your family believes in you, and we’re here and I can say that we’re in the situation we put ourselves in and we’re happy with it. We know that we can see the end of the road.”

Allen was offered three years, $9.5 million by the Celtics but took two years (the second a player option) at $6.2 million to be in South Beach. There was certainly a little bad blood there, tied to Allen feeling Danny Ainge shopped him around, but mostly it was about this for Allen. He wanted another ring and Miami was more likely to offer him one. Boston fans felt betrayed, which is fine.

But Allen likes where he is. And he’s not coming back to Boston.