Ray Allen has announced to the Miami Heat that he will accept their offer and leave the Boston Celtics after five seasons. The offer worth $3 million annually is barely mid-level income for an NBA player, but Allen doesn't seem to mind too much and is excited to continue playing basketball.
After the Celtics lost Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals to the Heat only a month ago, Allen commented "There's still a lot of basketball left in my legs."
Heat owner Micky Arison confirmed the agreement via twitter just after 9:30 p.m. Friday.
"I was just woken up with great news," Arison wrote. "Welcome to the family." Arison later mentioned in the tweet Allen's jersey No. 20, but made no mention of a name.
Moments later Allen's agent, James Tanner, verified to the Associated Press that the agreement was in fact true.
Team president Pat Riley recently made Allen the Heat's top free-agent pick and was reportedly the one who relayed the news to Arison.
Allen visited Miami on Thursday where he spent time with Riley, coach Erik Spoelstra, team executive Alonzo Mourning and several others, then made his decision to join the team the following day. However, due to the league's moratorium, Allen cannot sign an official agreement until Wednesday.
New teammates welcomed Allen to the Heat through twitter. Heat guard Dwayne Wade wrote "HeatNation continues to grow," while Heat forward LeBron James added, "Please welcome our newest teammate Ray Allen," followed by a hashtag of "Wow."
Allen is not the first Heat player in recent years to take a smaller amount of money than he could have been making somewhere else. During the summer of 2010, the Heat also got James, Wade, and Chris Bosh to agree on contracts that would pay them less during that offseason.
In the days prior to Allen accepting the offer, both Wade and James used Facebook and Twitter to encourage Allen to join the team. James shared with follows that he wanted to see Allen wearing the Heat uniform, while Wade tweeted the day before Allen's visit to Miami, that the next day would be an important one for the team.
Miami hopes to add a few more free agents to the Heat, with Marcus Camby and Rashard Lewis topping their list of hopeful add-ons.
