Allen, Ray

Walter Ray Allen (born July 20, 1975 in Merced, California), commonly referred to as Ray Allen, is an American professional basketball player for the NBA's Boston Celtics, for whom he plays shooting guard. He has also played for the Milwaukee Bucks and Seattle SuperSonics. Allen is known as one of the best pure shooters in the history of the NBA, especially from three-point range.
Contents
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* 1 Personal life
* 2 College career
* 3 NBA career
* 4 Awards/honors
* 5 Notes
* 6 External links

[edit] Personal life

Allen was born in Merced, California. He played high school basketball at Hillcrest High School in Dalzell, South Carolina taking them to a state championship.[2] His dad was in the Air Force so he had to move constantly while growing up. He excelled in soccer and baseball and is the third of five kids. He chose to play professional basketball and has become a great shooter with a very quick shooting release.[3]

Allen is a 12 handicap golfer. He also bowls, and averages over 150.[4] During Milwaukee's 2001 playoff series with the Hornets, Allen painted his toenails green and purple for good luck.[4] He is often referred to as "Jesus Shuttlesworth", the name of his character in the movie He Got Game. The name also refers to Sheldon Strickland.

[edit] College career

Allen was a highly successful college basketball player at the University of Connecticut from 1993–96. He earned All-American status during the 1994-95 season and was also named USA Basketball's Male Athlete of the Year for 1995. In his next and final college season, Allen was named first-team All-America and received the Big East Player of the Year award. Allen finished his career at UConn third on the Huskies' career scoring list with 1,922 points. He also set a school single-season record by connecting on 115 three-pointers in 1995-96.

[edit] NBA career

Drafted out of the University of Connecticut by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the fifth pick of the 1996 NBA Draft, Allen was shipped, along with a future first-round draft pick, to the Milwaukee Bucks for the rights to fourth pick Stephon Marbury. Named to the NBA's All-Rookie 1st Team in 1997, Allen evolved into an elite player, averaging at least 20 points per game in each of the last seven seasons.

He is regarded as one of the best shooters in NBA history, having made nearly 40% of his three-point attempts and almost 90% of his free throw attempts. In 2001, he won the NBA All-Star Weekend three-point contest. He also had an acting role in the critically acclaimed film He Got Game, in which he starred alongside Denzel Washington as a high school basketball phenom Jesus Shuttlesworth.[5]

Allen played with the Bucks for the first 6½ years of his career until 47 games into the 2002-03 season, when he, along with guards Kevin Ollie (a fellow UConn alumn), Ronald Murray and a conditional first-round draft pick, was dealt to the Sonics for Gary Payton and Desmond Mason. The move to Seattle did not hurt Allen's game; he bounced back from an injury-riddled 2004 to be voted to the All-NBA Second Team in 2005. Allen re-signed with the Sonics in 2005 for a 5-year contract worth $80 million, with $5 million more in performance bonuses. In the 2005-06 regular season, he averaged a career-high 25.1 points per game while adding 4.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game.

On March 12, 2006, Allen became the 97th player in NBA history to score 15,000 points. On April 7, 2006, Allen moved into second place on the NBA's list of all-time three-point field goals made in a game against the Portland Trail Blazers, behind only legendary marksman Reggie Miller. On April 19, 2006, against the Denver Nuggets, Allen broke Dennis Scott's ten-year-old NBA record for three-point field goals in a season by sinking his 268th. At the end of the game, Allen received a standing ovation from the home crowd.

On January 12, 2007, Allen scored a career-high 54 points against the Utah Jazz in a 122-114 overtime win, the second most in Sonics history. Fred Brown scored 58 points for Seattle in 1974.[6] Allen, who has missed games during the 2006-07 season due to ankle soreness, has had ankle surgery and missed the rest of the season.

On February 5, 2007, his number was retired at Gampel Pavilion on the University of Connecticut Storrs campus during halftime of the men's basketball game against the Syracuse Orangemen as part of the "Huskies of Honor" ceremony which recognized the accomplishments of 13 former players and three former coaches.[7]

On June 28, 2007, Allen was traded to the Boston Celtics along with Seattle's second-round pick Glen Davis (#35 overall pick) for Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiak, and the number 5 pick in the 2007 NBA Draft (Jeff Green).

On November 4, 2007, Allen scored his 17,000th career point in a 98-95 victory over the Toronto Raptors including a tiebreaking three-pointer with 3 seconds remaining in overtime en route to a game-high 33 points.[8]

He was the subject of the article "Pro Athlete Lauded For Being Decent Human Being" in the satirical newspaper The Onion.[9]

Allen is a member of the famous Air Jordan brand, which is a subsidiary of Nike. The shoe label is headed by Michael Jordan and features prominent athletes from several different sports.