Comments on: The Best of a Bad Situation: Ray Allen Continued

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 01:40:31 +0000

It was and is the worst trade ever. Ray Ray wanted to be here. He was/is a class act, and having to watch him star in other cities for 8 years has been absolutely painful.

Erie Grunfeld is a complete idiot. He ruined the Bucks and is at it again in Washington. If I ever see him, someone stop me.

By: Jeremy Schmidt

Jeremy Schmidt — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:39:50 +0000

It’s actually funny – I remember being pumped when the trade went down. Payton and Cassell were my version of Walt Frazier and Earl the Pearl at the time, and I was on a big Walt Frazier kick. I thought Redd was ready to step in and BE Ray Allen and it seemed like Tim Thomas could step into a bigger role with two point guards helping him along.

I even bought a “Love the Glove” homemade shirt on my way to a playoff game later that season. I’d eventually use that shirt as a rag when something spilled in my garage.

Oops.

By: KFyzMdtwn

KFyzMdtwn — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 23:39:18 +0000

I’ll preface this by saying that I was a big Desmond Mason fan, and of course a big Michael Redd fan when he was healthy. Those two are the silver lining of the trade.

But this was still a dispicable, terrible, awful trade. We gave up Murray, Ollie AND a first round pick for a declining Payton who was mere months away from free agency and made it known that he wouldn’t stay in Milwaukee. Ray Allen is one of the best, if not THE best 3 point shooter of all time, and for many years was probably the NBA’s best pure shooter. And not only did we trade him, the package we gave up for what was basically Des Mason is downright laughable. How did we get suckered into giving up conditional first rounder in a deal for an increasingly washed up PG who was going to leave anyway? Was there hope he would sign an extension because Karl had a huge thing for him? I have no doubt that had this trade not been made, the Bucks fortunes of the 2000s would be different. Sure we probably wouldn’t have had Ford or Bogut, but also probably not Yi and Joe Alexander. Redd could have been traded for a PG to replace Cassell or a scoring forward to replace Big Dog, and we could have had some lasting success.

Full disclosure, I was 13 when this trade went down. I loved Allen and I had been a Bucks/NBA fan for a few years, but this trade set back my interest in professional basketball for years to come. Yeah, diss me for being a bad fan. I was 13, I wasn’t yet at the point where I put the team ahead of all else. I felt downright betrayed, and I harbor resentment toward Grunfield and even Karl to this day for the Allen trade. Now I’m a Bucks fan ahead of an Allen fan, but Ray Allen has always been my favorite basketball player and

By: Cody

Cody — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:40:00 +0000

Great follow up to your first article on Ray Ray! I really appreciate your passion for the Bucks and Ray Allen.

By: SFBucksFan

SFBucksFan — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 19:57:49 +0000

The Ray Allen trade upset me then and it upsets me now. How could Ernie Grunfeld (worst GM ever?) trade the best player to put on a Bucks uniform since Sidney Moncrief for a guy, Gary Payton, who was not shy about making it clear from the moment he was traded that he considered my hometown barely one step above purgatory and there was no way, NO WAY, that he would ever even consider re-signing with the Bucks after he led them to a disappointing, but all too predictable (based on his comments and his effort as a player down the stretch, seriously, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a player let his feelings for his surroundings dictate his effort like Payton), first round playoff defeat. I know it ain’t Oakland, Gary (sarcasm), but Milwaukee is a pretty great place in its own right, and I know first hand that many players who were not from Milwaukee and did not enjoy the cold weather to say the least enjoyed their time in Milwaukee and playing for the Bucks fans anyways. He would have been better served keeping his feelings to himself and putting his head down and working hard for the team, but he didn’t, he phoned it in from the second he got to Milwaukee, in my opinion. Didn’t we also give Seattle a 1st round pick, Flip Murray, AND Kevin Ollie, too? So it turned out to be Ray Allen, Flip Murray, Kevin Ollie and a 1st round pick for an athletic swing man and two months of someone else’s problem, a declining and sulking Gary Payton. Worst. Trade. Ever.