Ray Allen Explains The Biggest Difference Between The 2008 Boston Celtics And The 2013 Miami Heat

Ray Allen is one of the few players who can brag about being in two different championship teams. He won the chip with the Boston Celtics in 2008 and 5 years later with the Miami Heat, two completely different groups, contexts, and franchises.

In fact, Allen got a lot of hate from Celtics’ fans and even players from jumping the ship, as the Heat were Boston’s biggest rivals at that point with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh.

And now that it’s all water under the bridge and he’s not going to be criticized for it again, Allen took it to James Posey’s podcast to discuss several matters, including the differences between both teams. According to the sharpshooter, Spoelstra’s team was deeper and full of veterans, while the Celtics got the job done with young, unproven players:

“The Miami team was deeper. From top to bottom it was just vets. It was a problem that Spo had because he had so many players he can go from James Jones to Mike Miller to Shane Battier. You look at the roster everyone can play and contribute. On our roster in Boston, once you left PJ [Brown] and Sam [Cassell] everyone else was like Big Baby [Glen Davis] who was a first-year player. We had [Brian] Scalabrine]. We had [Tony Allen]. We had Gabe Pruitt. A lot of young players who haven’t been on the stage,” Allen said.

It’s interesting to see how different both approaches can be and the fact that they still managed to go the distance. The Celtics were bruisers, they grew from defense and had a feel for knocking down huge shots. The Heat played solid defense but thrived off athleticism and explosiveness.

At the end of the day, Allen played a huge role in both championships. He was the Celtics’ second gun behind Paul Pierce and hit some incredible shots down the stretch with the Heat, including the shot that some argue that saved LeBron’s legacy.