D'Amato: Ray Allen never understood why George Karl didn't like him

Ray Allen hasn’t spoken a word to his former coach, George Karl, since Feb. 20, 2003. That was the day Karl got his wish and the Milwaukee Bucks shipped Allen to the Seattle SuperSonics.

It was, hands down, the worst trade in franchise history. The "Big Three" of Allen, Sam Cassell and Glenn Robinson had led the Bucks to within a whisker of the NBA Finals in 2001. Robinson was traded in 2002 but it was the Allen trade that started the franchise on a downward spiral which continued unabated for a decade, until the team drafted a skinny Greek kid named Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Allen, then 27, already was a three-time all-star and had led the NBA in three-pointers made the previous two seasons. He’d won an Olympic gold medal in 2000. He was a fan favorite, liked Milwaukee and was entrenched in the community.

For whatever reason, Karl didn’t care for him.

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“The funny thing is, I never had any confrontation with George,” Allen said. “We never had arguments. It was always, ‘George doesn’t like you.’ I was hearing this from other people. Why? I think he didn’t like the way I was, the type of person I was.

“There was a Sports Illustrated article about me that said I wore a suit to games, and Karl said I cared more about being cool than being tough. Ultimately, he just didn’t like me.”

Allen writes extensively about the trade and his time in Milwaukee in his recently released autobiography, “From the Outside: My Journey Through Life and the Game I Love.”

In an interview to promote the book, co-written with Michael Arkush, Allen said the Bucks would have won a championship if he, Cassell and Robinson had stayed together.

“Yeah, and it was broken apart in part because of George’s and my relationship,” Allen said. “It’s unfortunate. I felt like I was taking shots from him on a regular basis. There was always something he didn’t like about me. I was like, ‘Geez, there’s nothing I can do right for this guy.’”

Sen. Herb Kohl, then the Bucks’ owner, told me years later he regretted giving Karl and then-general manager Ernie Grunfeld the green light to make the trade. The Bucks sent Allen, Kevin Ollie, Ron Murray and a conditional draft pick to Seattle for Gary Payton and Desmond Mason.

Karl coveted Payton, who’d played for him in Seattle, but Payton didn’t covet Milwaukee and wound up being a 28-game rental. Mason averaged 14.3 points over four seasons, until the Bucks traded him (and a first-round draft pick) to New Orleans for Jamaal Magloire, who lasted one season before he was traded to Portland for Steve Blake, Brian Skinner and Ha Seung-Jin.

If you’re following along, you know where this is going. Skinner lasted two years in Milwaukee and Blake played 33 games before being traded to Denver for Earl Boykins and Julius Hodge. The well-traveled Boykins played one season with the Bucks (though he did come back three years later) and Hodge played the grand total of 28 minutes in five games before being released.

All Allen did was play five years in Seattle, five more in Boston and two in Miami, winning a pair of NBA titles, making seven more all-star teams and finishing his Hall of Fame career as the Association’s all-time leader in three-pointers made and attempted.

Allen said he hasn’t spoken with Karl since the day of the trade, when he found out from reporters that he was being sent to Seattle.

“I don’t feel the need to say anything to him,” he said. “It was clear that he didn’t like me. He did what he did to move me on. I can’t waste time or energy on people who don’t like me.”

Allen said he learned a lot about basketball from Karl and took ownership for not attempting to sit down with the coach and figure out how the two could co-exist. He said one of the reasons he never stood up to Karl was that he grew up in a military family and was taught to respect authority figures.

“Once you get your grown-up legs underneath you in the NBA, I certainly would have said to him, ‘Stop talking about me in the paper. Just tell me.’ ” Allen said. “You should respect me enough to tell me to my face. If there’s something I’m not doing, just tell me. That’s what’s most fascinating about the whole scenario is that George and I never had an argument.”

Allen, 42, said “From the Outside” was his second attempt at an autobiography. He wrote a book when he was in Milwaukee but it never got published. He still has the manuscript.

“So much has happened in my career,” he said. “It’s so important to talk about it. For me to do it in my own words is important for people to understand who I was and where I came from.”

And, unfortunately for Bucks fans, where he went.