Arguably the greatest shooter of his era, soon-to-be-inducted Hall of Famer Ray Allen revealed that he would hear other teams' coaches blurt out a specific NSFW nickname whenever he finds himself wide open for a jumper. Jay King, Boston Celtics reporter for The Athletic, tweeted out Allen's statement.
Ray Allen: “Some coaches on other teams used to call me ‘oh shit.’ When I got open, they used to yell, ‘oh shit.’”
— Jay King (@ByJayKing) September 6, 2018
Allen was an incredibly dangerous shooter and his career 40% shooting from beyond the arc says it all. Hartford Courant's Mike Anthony states that Allen's path to becoming the greatest shooter of his era started in 1993 when his college coach, Jim Calhoun, issued a dire challenge on him.
Jim Calhoun challenged Ray Allen just once when it came to approach. It was after a practice in late 1993 when Allen, then a UConn freshman, was making his way off campus and toward a movie theater or something with teammates when Calhoun offered some parting words.
“I said, ‘Hey, Ray, you leaving?’” Calhoun recalls. “’Question: Did you shoot 100 percent today? No? Oh, I thought you wanted to be great.’ And he kind of just looked at me. I remember it so vividly.”
Allen would heed the call for greatness and on the process, became obsessed with his shooting perfection.
But never has there been a player who was equally hard on himself, so consumed with details, so dedicated to a craft, so focused. Allen came to UConn a gifted athlete, left a lottery pick, became the top 3-point shooter in NBA history and starred in a movie along the way not by riding his obvious gifts, but by becoming genuinely obsessed with perfection, with shooting 100 percent in every imaginable way.
This Friday night, the two-time NBA champion's body of work will finally be stapled into history as Allen will be inducted to the coveted Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
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