Ballad about Ray Allen

I had my first encounter with Ray Allen at All-Star 2008 in New Orleans. We did a long interview for OBN, and it has already been seen that all this story about Ray as an "undisputed professional" - absolutely stands. After each question, the interlocutor looks in the eyes and responds, does not say too much, but does not offer blunt and meaningless answers (the saddest interview was given by Amara Stoudamire who struggled to complete every sentence. After a while everyone was cheered only to bring the answer to the end.

Although, anyone who follows the intense NBA knows how much Amara has been through childhood, so his public speech problem may be understandable). In the flood of tattooed NFL jerseys, a man without any tattoos and who never came to the game in the jeans (Allen at all, but all the games he wears only) is totally different.

Later in the training session of the Eastern Conference, Ray Allen separated from the rest of the team that played a crowd of media representatives and shot at the auxiliary basket while the ball was returned by the assistant coach Celtics. This was only one of the reporters from Boston Globe and your columnist columnist. Allen for an hour and some 10-15 minutes of intense shooting did not mess up the NEXT ball !?

While Lebron, Howard, and society sputtered the horrors from half the field, Allen methodically hit the basket from all positions ... a series of free throws, five-meter shots, corner trio and wings ... I'll repeat ... without any failure. At the end of the training, Kevin Eastman (assistant to Doc Rivers) laughed and handed over Allen's hand. After all, what to say for a man who, when he misses the shot, always knows why he missed it: "When I hit the first ring it's because I did not get enough response, when I hit the second ring it's because I push the ball instead of throwing it out. On the right side, it's enough for me to see a ring with my eye eye, nothing more, I do not have to turn my feet to the basket, I know I'll guess ... "

Ray Allen is the owner of the fastest NBA championship for years. On average, it is 0.7 seconds long enough to receive a ball, jump and kick. Take into account how much Allen is reflected in every shot and never shot the ground, and then you can figure out what speed it is. In 90% of cases the defender has no chance.
ROB NAVIKE

I noticed a strange thing during the final against Lakers. At the bottom of the Allen jersey, hung in the locker room, there was always a line pulled out with a fingernail. I asked a little, and the answer was that Ray would always mark on the jersey until he was sent to the shore. The line is always in the same place and the shorts and jersey must look exactly the way he intended, until then he does not go to the court. The same thing with stockings. They have to be equally raised in relation to sneakers, Allen, and measure it as veterans PJ Brown and James Posey push their elbows and shake their heads through a smile.

"I knew at a young age that I had some movement, although I was not sure what was going on. If I stepped on an odd step by step, I was returning home and waiting for the sky to fall."

Allen was diagnosed during the middle school with a milder form of an obsessive-compulsive disorder. Ray's routine before each game has been the same for 20 years. Sleep from 11:30 to 13:00, chicken and rice at 14: 30h, arrival at the hall at 15:45 and then stretching. After that, Allen ritually shakes his head, then goes out on the field and shoots for three hours (exactly three hours). Only after that follows the shower and dressing of the jersey and finally going to the field and matches.

Allen adheres to this regardless of whether she is home or away. It's a legendary story that Ray who does not drink alcohol on roaming has never come into the night life, before or after the game.

"I do not have a lot of things to do on the tour because I leave the nightwear outfit home. Anyone who wants to spend the night in the night can do it all the summer. I have invested too much in basketball to spoil it by going to clubs."


FROM UCONNE TO MIAMI

Already at UConn College, Ray was a nightmare not only for opponents, but also for teammates who did not care where they left things, how many times they showered and who were unshaven. Jim Calhoun, now a former coach of UConna (Calhoun recruited Allen from High School in South Carolina where he played the center for most of this time.) Calhoun's biggest disappointment was Allen's shot !? was put in by Ray and Travis Knight (former Lakers) whose personal hygiene was not a stronger side. Knight somehow survived with the layout of things in the room, but when he pushed the toothpaste from the middle of the tube - it was his end. Allen promptly threw him out of the room.

In Millwall he arrived in one of the best draft generations ever, the one in '96, only that Bucks fans were looking for Stephon Marburya who was swapped in Wolves, and for the award, Allen was whistled during the draft (The Fate of Destiny three years later, Ray Allen was starred in Spike Lee's He got game, which talks about Stephen Marburg's life. Marbury refused to star in the film with Denzel Wasington, and Ray was heroically held during scene of group sex with real porn actors, pardon stars Jill Kelly and Chasey Lain).

Allen was negotiating his first NBA contract, winning the life-long confidence of Bucks owner, US Senator Herb Kohl (Kohl is also known for his statement after Glenn Big Dog Robinson asked for $ 100 million for the first contract: "Son, here's Millwaukee Bucks, and you give me 100 million ").

The departure from Bucks came after numerous quarrels with coach George Karl, who called Ray and his wife Shannon "Ken and Barbi". Years in Seattle were strange. Ray suffered as in a trance, but there were no major results. Young team, very good coach - Nate McMillan, but still insufficient quality to make in the strong West a little more than the second round of play-offs.

Nevertheless, Ray spent three hours before each match and infected most of the team there, so he adjusted the positive habits of young players ahead of all Rashard Lewis (again teammates, this time in Miami) and he came to nearly beat Antonio Daniels who took his standard parking spot (Someone who's a slave to the habit does not just do it) before the game with the Knicks. Allen scored 40 points this night and when Daniels tried to score in the finals of the game with the words: "I should more often take your parking spot," Ray, after hitting a free throw, pulled out: "Never again in life"

In Boston, Ray came to the title of the champion and became the player with the most troika in the history of the NBA. He sacrificed the number of shots, minutes and in general contact with the ball, but he grabbed the trophy at the end of the day (your columnist was fortunate to transfer from Boston and Los Angeles all six NBA finals in 2008 in which Ray Allen literally fried Lakers. the match and then the seven-time battling fire in the sixth match that Boston got with almost 40 differences. Allen set a record with 22 hit trophies in one NBA Finals.

Still things in the Celtics did not go smoothly. Danny Ainge tried to trade him on three occasions, a player who saw the idol in his first spot became the greatest enemy - Rajon Rondo, with Kevin Garnett, he learned to coexist (Ray, for an hour before the game, always finishes his preparation and then talks and he jokes with teammates. In that period KG does not communicate with his mother either.), while Paul Pierce could never fully understand Allen's methodology:

"Ray is completely crazy: once I missed the dancing on warming up before the match, he asked me to miss the next knockout in the same way, and the second time he asked me to sit in my seat on the plane, because changing places violated the harmony. I do the same thing every day like him - I would kill myself. "

He was deeply unhappy about the treatment in Boston, after winning the title, Allen decided to go to the ranks of the biggest rivals for less money. It's hard to have a player in the NBA who raises Ray's shot from Lebron James and it's hard to have a team in the NBA who will be more concerned with the style of Miami Heat. Allen last season with 36 years had the best percentage of three-point shots in his career (45%), and from the left corner of the Ray Ray trophy, 58% (which is the best player ratio - position in the entire league).

The fact that Miami does not have to run through the blocks as he did in Boston and can wait for the return balls of James, Wade and Bosh means that Allen could easily play until his 40th birthday. That would mean at least two seasons of watching the most beautiful shield that appeared in the NBA, which has little to do with talented talent, just ask the owner ...

"Every time they tell me that my shot is the gift of God, I am angry. I know how much I train every day, and I'm sure God has a smarter job than having my jump."