What he means by they were in the same situation is Ainge made it clear to all 3 of them that they were getting traded. How they left was completely different, but can anybody dispute that they weren't all in the same situation?
Before you inevitably bash Ray in this thread, think about what you would do if given the choice between the possibility of being traded to a lottery team and the guarantee of being on a title-contender. I personally would take the risk and stay on the Celtics for one last chance at a ring, but I admit my opinion means nothing because I don't have the experience of either situation.
Ray has done absolutely everything he could've done to show remorse and that it was literally "just business, not personal." He went as far as to tap KG on the shoulder. There is one thing EVERY basketball player learns as early as the playground, and that's to leave it on the court. You can hate somebody's guts in the game, but the second the game ends you shake hands and you go back to being best friends. Life is completely separate from basketball. One day those 3 will talk again, even if it's not til after KG and Paul retire.
I must've watched an entirely different sequence of events.
Ray was offered a no-trade clause. We were actively trying bring Ray back to reload for another run, he chose half the money to go to the team we were trying to beat.
A year later, Danny decided to blow it up and allowed KG and Paul the opportunity to play for a ring. Together at that.
To me, those are two distinctdistinctly different situations with entirely different circumstances.
People can knock Danny and management all they want, but the facts are that they had no obligation to trade Paul and KG to the same team. They could've traded Paul anywhere without consulting him. They didn't and that was a choice. Obviously, there is some respect and loyalty there or Paul could've ended up on a team like Cleveland, Washington, or Milwaukee simply vying for a playoff berth instead of competing for a championship.
And as far as the "it's business, it's not personal" - you have to think they would've talked to Ray by now if that was true. I think there were more issues behind the scenes than us fans will ever know about. One thing that constantly comes to mind whenever the Ray Allen issue comes up is how Doc claimed at the time that it was Ray's idea for Avery to stay in the starting lineup but it came out after he left that Ray was really unhappy coming off the bench.