The issues chasing Ray Allen out of the Boston Celtics and into the arms of their most despised opponent stacked higher and higher, and suddenly everything crystallized in the hours basketball’s most persuasive recruiter, Pat Riley, captivated him. The emperor of the Miami Heat sold Allen on never hearing his name in trade talks and a run of championships awaiting him. After all these years, Allen needed to feel wanted again, needed the recruiting, and Riles had such a willing soul sitting with him in the breeze blowing over Biscayne Bay.

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"He felt he was getting respect that he hadn’t gotten from [Celtics president] Danny [Ainge] and [coach] Doc [Rivers] anymore," a source close to Allen said Friday night. "…The presentation was incredible."

Respect comes in different ways, but make no mistake: The Celtics had offered two years and $12 million – respect for someone's who's 37 and coming off ankle surgery – and it didn’t matter to Allen. He hated the way Ainge dangled him in trade talks, hated that the Celtics told him he was on his way to Memphis in a deal at the March deadline only to have Rivers later tell him the trade was dead. Allen hated that Rivers didn’t give him his starting job back after he returned from a late-season ankle injury, and hated that it always felt like he was the Celtics star made to sacrifice above the rest.

Ainge and Rivers talked to Allen over and over on these issues in recent weeks, tried to smooth over the lingering bitterness, but there was something that Allen couldn’t move past, something he no longer wanted to deal with – the deterioration of his relationship with complicated point guard Rajon Rondo.

And with all of this cobbled together, with the sudden lure of sun-drenched golf courses and Riley’s pitch and a three-year, $9.7 million contract that could easily bring him two or three championships, Allen made a monumental move. He’s leaving for Miami, and the Celtics-Heat rivalry – the Ray Allen Celtics' legacy – are changed forever.

[Related: Ray Allen chooses Heat over Celtics]

Kevin Garnett recruited Allen harder in the final weeks than Paul Pierce did, sources said, but both made it clear: Our run isn’t over, Ray. Come on back where you belong, and let’s get back to work. The Celtics were bringing back Jeff Green, had signed Jason Terry, drafted Jared Sullinger, and the franchise was selling Allen a scenario where the curtain hadn’t dropped on its championship aspirations.

This wasn’t Steve Nash leaving a losing lottery operation in Phoenix that didn’t want him back anyway. This was Ray Allen leaving the Celtics in the middle of a full reload, the bolstering of a roster to make a run at the Heat again. This was Ray Allen offered more money, not less.

And yet for those in New England daring to call it treason, well, Ray Allen will call it something else: My turn.

For all the past indignities – real or imagined – Rondo was the issue that hadn’t gone away, that would still be there come training camp. They don’t like each other, and it had become a bigger and bigger drag on Allen, sources said. Each had culpability for why things had gone awry, and yet each was better on the court because he had played with the other.

Rondo has had a polarizing impact within the Celtics' locker room, and his relationships with teammates and coaches have fluctuated over the years. Allen and Rondo never had arguments this year, never got into it. In fact, one source said: "Ray mostly ignored him." After the season, Rivers tried his best to mend the relationship between Rondo and Allen – make it manageable on some level. And yet, as one source with direct knowledge of the coach’s efforts said, the relationship was "too far gone."

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