Tony Allen goes off on time with Pelicans, Alvin Gentry

The New Orleans Pelicans are one of the newest teams in the entire NBA. Although the Big Easy has had a storied history with professional basketball, the actual current franchise has only been in the city since 2002 after the original Charlotte Hornets relocated to Louisiana.

Before that, the city had one of the original ABA teams, the New Orleans Buccaneers, who relocated to Memphis. Then, in 1974, the NBA expanded and the New Orleans Jazz were born. Unfortunately, due to their lack of a designated arena and on-court success, the Jazz moved to Salt Lake City ahead of the 1979-80 season. Between 1979 and 2002, there was no professional basketball in NOLA until the Hornets came to town and eventually metamorphosed into the Pelicans.

Even though the Pelicans have only been around for just over two decades, they've already had some monumental players in the franchise's history. Talents like Chris Paul, Anthony Davis, Tyson Chandler, David West, Jrue Holiday, and Zion Williamson have etched their names into basketball immortality with New Orleans. Some players, though, might not be remembered so fondly by the Crescent City, and, apparently, the feeling is mutual.

Tony Allen did not enjoy his time with the Pelicans and Head Coach Alvin Gentry

A player is rarely equally beloved by multiple franchises, but that's exactly the case with Tony Allen. He was drafted 25th overall in 2004 by the Boston Celtics and wound up becoming one of the most decorated players in his class. He spent six years in Beantown as arguably the top reserve during their Big 3 era with Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett and helped the Cs bring home the Larry O'Brien in 2008.

Despite being a valued member of their championship core, Tony Allen hit free agency in the summer of 2010, and the Celtics couldn't afford to retain their key defensive cog off of the bench. Allen ended up signing with the Memphis Grizzlies and helped them establish their Grind City identity alongside Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph, and Mike Conley, earning six total All-Defensive Team nods between 2010 and 2017. He made such an impact as the spiritual leader of Memphis's "grit-n-grind" era that Memphis announced that they will retire his number nine in this upcoming season.

He was such an iconic member of both the Celtics and the Grizzlies that many NBA fans have already forgotten that he didn't finish his career with either of those teams. He actually played his last season in 2017-18 with the New Orleans Pelicans, appearing in just 22 games. Although he had such a short stint with NOLA, his time was apparently very memorable, albeit not in a good way.

Allen recently appeared on The Chris Vernon Show and spared no feelings, having gone nuclear on the Pelicans organization and former head coach Alvin Gentry.

The Pels are notoriously owned by Gayle Benson and her family, who also run the New Orleans Saints. Infamously, the Bensons have been much more invested in their football team than their basketball squad, something that Allen confirmed during his appearance:

“Sometimes we had practice on the football field. We shooting baskets in the goal [post]… Whatever the Saints didn’t eat, we got the leftovers. Shoutout to the Pelicans. That’s the worst organization.”

Part of New Orleans's ineptitude according to Allen was leaving the reins to Alvin Gentry for far too long. Allen was not a fan of Gentry in any manner, stating that he was "one of the worst coaches in the world" and that he wasn't able to command the team effectively:

“He was old, man. [He used to] forget speeches like, ‘Fellas, now when we … What they doing wrong?’ He be like, ‘Fellas, we all got a rebound and uh … What else they did? Oh yeah, get back in transition.”

Gentry coached five seasons for New Orleans, overseeing the bulk of Anthony Davis's time with the Pelicans and the transition into the Zion Williamson era. With Gentry at the helm, the Pels went a total 175-225.