For 19 NBA seasons playing with the Milwaukee Bucks, then Seattle Supersonics, Boston Celtics and Miami Heat, the latest guest on NBATV’s “#NBATogether,” the No. 5 overall pick out of the University of Connecticut in 1996 NBA Draft shot his way to become the National Basketball Association’s (NBA’s) all-time leader in three-pointers made, was a perennial All-Star, earned two NBA titles and a Gold Medal as a member of the 200 Men’s Olympic squad. What made the life of this Hall of Famer different is that he grew up in a military family where he moved around a lot and had to embrace being different. It was not until he got on the hardwood that he found a place he could literally and figuratively call home and whatever role he was asked to play, and he played that role well. He also played that role off the floor as a husband and father.
Among the first things that NBA on TNT studio host and lead host of TNT’s “Inside the NBA,” presented by Kia Ernie Johnson asked in his interview with Hall of Fame sharp-shooter Ray Allen about the kinds of conversations he has had about not just the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic but the screams and protest for social justice in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Rayshard Brooks at the hands of law enforcement or racist Caucasians with his five children in 15-year-old son Walter Ray III; his 14-year-old son Walker; 11-year-old son Wynn; and eight-year-old son Wynstan Ryan with his wife of 12 years Shannon Walker Williams, and daughter Tierra from a previous relationship with Rosalind Ramsey.
Allen said that he has “tried to allow them” to see the good, bad, and ugly that exist on Earth so that they can converse early in their young lives. That when they exit the confines of their home, they know what is happening, what the “weather” is like around different parts of America, and the world.
That he wanted to be the “voice” for them to ask for answers when they have questions. Allen said to Johnson that the main problem that parents have in teaching their children about the bad and ugly parts of life.
That the difficult parts they “will learn” once they get older or they have to do something because that is what their parents told them to do when they are in a certain situation.
“We’re not talking to our kids,” Allen said about the issue parents have in raising their kids when it comes to hard subject matter. “We’re not having conversations with them and letting them know, why?”
Allen said that with his children they do sit down and talk about what is happening in America. He shows them the movies about the subject matter that they talk about like “The 13th,” “The Hate You Give,” “Birth of A Nation,” and “Amistad” that talk about the history of African Americans in America, their heritage and how we ended up to be where we are today where we have made progress but we have a lot more progress to make to where we are treated, paid and honored equally as our Caucasian counterparts.
“They have questions and I just want them to be prepared,” Allen said. “And I think that its not just a black thing. I think white kids should understand too because this is America.”
Johnson even said that he has been reading the 2018 book “White Fragility,” by Robin DiAngelo, which he said has gotten a lot of traction now that explains about how Caucasian America is so terrified to talk about race and how it is an uncomfortable subject to talk about.
When the subject came up about the passing of Mr. Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis, MN Police back in late May, Allen said that his kids just “watched” and “paid attention.”
They saw what was occurring on television like the rest of our nation and the world for that matter, and Allen said his children were “astounded.”
They watched it as a family again because Allen’s daughter had yet to see Mr. Floyd being killed when one of the three officers, that have been charged in the murder of the 47-year-old put his knee on his neck while having his hands in his pants pockets.
Allen then said he educated his kids on the statistics on how we got to this point low point in our nation where in just the last decade alone, 12 African Americans have lost their lives at the hands of those sworn to serve and protect them, and how Caucasian America has become so desensitized to this kind of modern day lynching and not confront those that would commit this horrific act.
The example Allen gave to illustrate this point of when his oldest son Walter Ray III was in the first-grade he thought he was Caucasian, and when someone said to him that he was black, he replied “No, I’m white.”
Allen in gathering his thoughts at that moment of what he heard out of the mouth from his son, it “dawned” on him that because his won was light-skinned and in his mind because he is a child that he thought he was Caucasian.
“Because we’re teaching our kids, you know, hatefulness and hurt, and all these negative traits. This jadedness that we put on to our children,” Allen said. “He’s thinking about the 64 crayons in the Crayola box. He knows what black looks like. He’s like ‘I’m beige. I’m not black.”
It was here Allen had to explain to his son what made black and brown folks who they are, and why minorities are looked at differently in society.
The difference is that Allen is teaching his son this valuable lesson through love as supposed to him learning this differently from a person via a racist prism of not liking dark-skinned people and that you do not like being around minorities.
It is here where this hatred that has continued the cataclysmic divide that can be seen as clear as the sun in the sky on a clear day.
This is when your kids Allen said where they begin to ask questions about who their children are, and this is where each parent has the opportunity to have this powerful conversation where they come out of it having a positive outlook on each person they come into contact with, not having an predetermined feelings.
Allen gained a lot of experience with this when he was his sons age because growing up the third of five children himself to Walter Ray Sr. and Flora Allen the now 44-year-old from a military family moved around a lot, spending time in Saxmundham, a small market town in Suffolk, England; in Altus, OK; Edwards Air Force Base in Kern County in Southern California.
During this time though, Allen felt like an outsider because of the way he talked.
Growing up being an army brat where you can be on one military base one moment and then on another in an instant, Allen compared it going to a “private school” your whole life.
As Allen and his family settled in Dalzell, SC, where he finally had some stability attending all four years of high school in one place and is not living on a military installation of all places it happens to be in the southern part of the U.S.
“I say to this day one of the best places for me for growth as a young person because I had to learn to fight,” Allen said of that part of his young life. “I had to learn. This is the first place, the first time in my life that I realized I was black.”
“When you grow up on a military base, you’re traveling all over the world and you’re around kids of different ethnicities and there’s no segregation, and you live where they put you. Your whole street is mixed, it’s a united nation of families.”
It was a completely different story for Allen once he got to the south where he saw the segregation first-hand, where he saw how African Americans hang around just other African Americans, and Caucasians were around just other Caucasians.
Allen found himself caught in the middle more often than not because when he got off the bus as an eighth grader coming from the military base it was easy for him to have his guard down because of the mix of ethnicity he was around.
When he got to high school back in the states in the south, Allen saw kids “drift” where they felt they were supposed to go, and he would follow them.
But there was a point where the African American kids would tell Allen that he was a “white boy,” simply because that was who he hung around a lot and that he spoke properly.
When the African Americans kids said that Allen spoke like a “white boy” he did not know what that meant. He only spoke the way he was taught to speak, proper and with respect.
“It was confusing to me. And for the first time in my life I had to question who I really was,” Allen said of that time.
Allen also said that he was catching the same hell from the Caucasian kids because they felt because of the color of his skin they did not welcome him either, which put him in limbo.
What saved Allen was the game of basketball, and everyday that he got off the bus and had nowhere else to go, he went to the basketball court.
It was here where Allen found the strength to fight back against anyone on the hardwood both literally and figuratively, especially against those that told him he was not good enough to make the school’s basketball team.
Because he was really good at basketball playing for the Hillcrest High School squad, Allen finally gained acceptance from both the African American and Caucasian kids at school, especially after leading them to their first state title game.
As he got older, Allen said he used basketball to bring the African Americans and Caucasians he knew together because of how he grew up being a military brat.
So much so that kids that were not from the base, when they came to Allen’s home for Sunday dinner, they realized when they walked in the door, you see every ethnic background there.
After high school, Allen would go on to attend the University of Connecticut from 1993-96, where he was named USA Basketball’s Male Athlete of the Year in 1995 and earned First-Team All-American honors in 1996 as well as captured the Big East Player of the Year.
He would finish his career No. 3 on the Huskies all-time scoring list with 1,922 points and making a single-season program record of 115 three-pointers.
In the now famed 1996 draft, the Minnesota Timberwolves selected Allen No. 5 overall and then his draft rights dealt to the Bucks, where he played for seven seasons.
For much of his NBA career, Allen was mainly known for his ability to strike a match from the perimeter and especially from three-point range where previously mentioned is the all-time leader in career triples made at 2,973.
Allen proved in his rookie season at the 1997 NBA All-Star Weekend where he finished fourth in the Slam Dunk contest, where he showed that he can put the ball on the floor and get to the rim just as good as any guard in the league.
Allen said that he finds it fascinating that everyone in the NBA today that it is their personal mission to become one of the best shooters to ever step onto the NBA hardwood.
To Allen, the best of all-time is who is “the best” to that person in their eyes, and that person grows up to young people that encourages you to become better.
Allen said that he had no clue that becoming a great three-point shooter would be something that he would be the best at or be the all-time leader of.
Two years before he surpassed Hall of Famer and current NBA on TNT color analyst Reggie Miller as the all-time leader in threes made while with the Celtics (2007-12), it was hard for Allen to fathom that he would be the all-time leader in that category.
“I couldn’t possibly be that guy because I’ve seen so many great three-point shooters. How is it me?” Allen said. “Because it was never something that I strived to do. My mission coming into the league was to be someone that people respected and came to work every day.”
Allen tells kids all the time that the No. 1 key to becoming a success at anything in life, specifically in sports is to be “available.”
That availability to Allen during his NBA career was to make sure his diet was on point, that he got plenty of rest, not to put anything into his body that could hinder him playing at his max potential on the court.
That his how he was available for 1,300 games in his 18-year career, 1,149 of them as a starter and he ultimately became a phenomenal marksman from three-point range but people forget because Allen played for nearly two decades totality of the other talents he brought to the floor.
Allen was especially available when the game is hanging in the balance in the closing seconds, especially in the playoffs.
When asked by Johnson where the so-called “clutch gene” comes from?
Allen answered that every young person wants that chance when the clock is winding down from 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 to hit that game-winning shot that brings the crowd to their feet.
“It’s just inside of us,” Allen said. “To me, clutch is being able to do your job when you’re job is needed to be done. Regardless of what the score is on the clock. Regardless of where you are, and regardless of how you feel. You go in there and do your job and you show people this is who I am and this is what I do. And if you come see me play, there’s a guarantee that you’re going to see what I do and you’re going to see me do it consistently, and you’re going to see me do it well. At the beginning of the game and at the end of the game.”
Getting to that point of being clutch Allen said comes from not compromising your practice, your sleep or any of the things that make you who you are.
He also said that the reason that others falter at the end of games is because they get tired due to the fact that they are not in the greatest shape they need to be in because fatigue “makes cowards of all of us.”
Allen said that he has practice contingency after contingency when he is shooting so that even when he is pushed down, he can get back up and shoot a three-pointer late in the game.
This is something that Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra knows so well because he told Johnson when he interviewed him early during the league’s hiatus because of the pandemic that the first workout Allen had with the Heat he and team president in Hall of Famer Pat Riley is watching him lay down in the painted area of the court, scrambling to his feet and running to the corner to shoot a three. Allen goes through this drill many times during that first workout.
Coach Spoelstra during his interview with Johnson that it was that kind of drill and the undeterred focus he had while doing it would lead to the game-tying triple of an offensive rebound by perennial All-Star Chris Bosh in Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals that tied the score and the Heat would go on to win that game in overtime 103-100 that tied The Finals at 3-3. The Heat would go on to win Game 7 95-88 to clinch back-to-back titles and their third Larry O’Brien trophy in franchise history.
“I’m just thankful that every time I watch that, the shot goes in,” Allen said of one of the greatest shots in NBA postseason history. “I see it and it does remind me of everything I put into the game and my physical being.”
“It’s fascinating because that’s what sports is all about. You get thrust into these situations and on such a grand scale playing in the NBA Finals it makes or breaks us. Our careers, our city’s, you know our teams, organizations.”
It was this moment that Allen always feared of being that guy that missed a free throw at the end of the game with the whole world watching and never letting that moment go.
Whenever Allen saw that when he even watched a college game on television the day before, he would head to the gym and shoot free throws.
Allen also said that he became incessant about putting in the work on every angle possible so that whenever he was in the situation where he had to backpedal towards that three-point line in the corner of the half court and being able to attempt that shot without letting the backside of his feet touch out of bounds.
That shot Allen made in Game 6 of the 2013 Finals is something he worked tirelessly on, especially on game day at least he said 30 to 40 times.
Before that shot Allen hit in the 2013 Finals for the Heat, who he joined as a free agent in the 2012 offseason, the Boston Celtics acquired him along with Glen “Big Baby” Davis and the No. 35 overall pick in the 2007 draft for Delonte West, current studio and color analyst for the New York Knicks Wally Szczerbiak, and the No. 5 overall pick of the same draft, which turned out to be current Houston Rockets’ forward Jeff Green. Along with acquiring Allen, the Celtics acquired future Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett from the Minnesota Timberwolves to play alongside current NBA studio analyst for ESPN in fellow future Hall of Famer Paul Pierce.
That group in five years together led the Celtics (2007-12) to totals of 66, 62, 50, 56, and 39 (strike shortened season of 2011-12) wins during those regular seasons, two appearances in The Finals in 2008, where they led along now head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers Glenn “Doc” Rivers led the Celtics to their all-time league leading 17th NBA title when they defeated the arch rival Los Angeles Lakers in six games. They Celtics made it back to The Finals in 2010 where they met the Lakers again but lost in seven games.
Allen called that time with the Celtics “special” because he and Pierce spent years competing against each other in the Eastern Conference when Allen was with the Bucks, where aside from reaching the 2001 Eastern Conference Finals, where they lost to Hall of Famer Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers in seven games, they struggled just to make the playoffs in his aforementioned seven season there.
Allen also said that the three had watched their respective careers from the time Allen and Garnett were growing up in South Carolina to their time in the NBA.
There was one time Allen recalled when he was with the Seattle Supersonics (2003-07) when they won a game at the Timberwolves and the next day he remembered seeing Garnett at the airport looking “stressed” as he walked from his car to the plane looking very “unhappy.”
That is what Allen said made being a part of that Celtics when he, Garnett joined Pierce in “Beantown” in the summer of 2007 because they all realized that by coming together and buying in to what Coach Rivers was selling them about make a commitment to defend on a nightly basis and sacrificing shots and points at the offensive end gave them a better chance to win, even though winning a title was not a guarantee.
But they knew it could happen because while the teams that Allen was on in his time with the Supersonics were as he said the “most fun teams” he played on, they were not seasoned enough to do the little things and make the kind of commitment necessary to win, especially in tight games in the fourth quarter.
That Celtics team with Pierce, Allen, and Garnett had three guys who had the ability to make plays on both ends to pull close games out of the fire.
“It was like-to win at a 65, 66 percent clip, it was just a different feeling,” Allen said of his five seasons. “We knew we had the chance to win and win big every single night.”
That bond and togetherness that Allen, Pierce, the 2008 Finals MVP and Garnett, and even then lead guard Rajon Rondo, who is now with the Lakers had became fractured after Allen departed in free agency in the aforementioned summer of 2012 to join the Heat after turning down a two-year, $12 million deal to return to the Celtics.
Allen said that he had a conversation with Pierce when the two spent time together on a trip to China about a couple years ago, where they tried to clear the air. But he said he has yet to speak to Garnett or Rondo since the final two years of his career on the hardwood.
“To me it’s a shame because you’d done something so special with a group of guys that you’re forever immortalized in that city, you know, in those rafters,” Allen said. “And to feel the hatred coming from that side for me, you know, its been disappointing for me this whole time.”
The one thing that Celtics team said in Allen’s time there that when you win you are brothers forever, which is something Allen said that he comes to feel, know, and expect.
It is something that Allen has seen with other teams in other sports that when you win a title, your bond should never be broken, even when members of that team like the players move on.
All Allen did is sign another contract with the Heat, which at that time was the arch-rival to the Celtics in the Eastern Conference at that time.
“My heart is sound and it’s strong, and I’m happy. And my life is great and everything in it,” Allen said. “So, it would take those individuals to say, ‘I’m fine, you know, having a conversation and just kind of getting past this,’ because we’ve seen too many things over the last couple of months to be holding on to immature grudges.”
Allen said that he had that same regret with Kobe Bryant, who died along with his daughter Gianna and seven other people in a helicopter crash outside of Los Angeles on Jan. 26.
While he and Bryant, who were in that same 1996 draft class competed intensely when they played against one another, to the point where they did not like each other. But they had immense respect for one another.
That dislike though Allen had for the late 41-year-old Hall of Famer to be in 2021 said was nothing “personal.” They just played that hard because they wanted to defeat the other.
“I think so much in the atmosphere where it gets misshapen where people start to take it personal with me,” Allen said. “They have feelings and they say mistruths and its like, ‘Wow.’ Like we really got to that point where were talking like we’re hurt behind certain instances and situations.”
At the end of the day, Allen said that basketball is “game” that is played to be an inspiration and encouragement to those that watch either in person or on television to be better people, and not individuals that hold on to baggage, and send it out into the world.
There is nothing wrong in Allen eyes to say that another player other than your teammate(s) is incredible, and that you respect that player because of the work they put into their craft to improve.
It really bothers Allen that a lot of NBA players going back to when he played to now that it is hard to give another player credit for getting better. That it is a lot easier to call that player a scrub, overrated, and terrible, especially when they do it on social media.
In Allen’s mind, every NBA player should be lifting each other up because the opposing player you play against is not the enemy, except for when you play against each other on the hardwood.
That player is trying to get to the same level of greatness you are, and possibly higher, with the only reason that you can realize that you can raise your level of your opponent is because that opponent pushed you.
“So, you should shake his hand because he made you who you are. He made you great,” Allen said.
Having that perspective is how Allen answered that is life would be “exactly” the same when Johnson asked how his life would had been different had he not landed the part of Jesus Shuttlesworth in the 1998 Spike Lee movie “He Got Game,” starring opposite Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington. The only thing that would be different that he would not have earned the nickname “Young Jesus.”
But Allen did say though that if he did not do “He Got Game” that he would not have been as good of a basketball player that he ended up being.
Being different in this world can be tough, especially when you are a young person trying to figure it out. Walter Ray Allen, Jr. was about a different as you can get, growing up on an army brat. Having to live in a bunch of different places.
What brought him peace and perspective is basketball and that allowed him to take on a lot of challenges as a high schooler and he came out better as a basketball player and as a person.
It is how he became an excellent collegiate at the University of Connecticut, a perennial NBA All-Star, a two-time NBA champion, a Hall of Famer, and a player who earned the respect from his teammates, coaches, and opponents in his 18 seasons because of his tireless work ethic and commitment to being great.
A lot of us today with the global pandemic and the systemic racism are trying to figure out how to come out better on the other side of this. Allen with all that he has gone through in his life has more than prepared him for this moment and he is instilling all of his experiences to his five children so they will be ready for whatever they have to take on and thrive in the world.
Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 5/26/2020 https://news.amomama.com story, “NBA Star Ray Allen Is A Doting Father of 5 Kids-Meet Them All,” by Pedro Marrero; 6/17/2020 8:30 p.m. edition of NBATV’s “#NBATogether With Ernie Johnson: Ray Allen;” https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/20130618MIA.html; https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/a/allenra02.html; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Boston_Celtics_seasons; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Allen.
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