On Thursday, members of the Boston Celtics‘ 2008 championship team posed for a picture while enjoying a Fourth of July dinner in Los Angeles, California.
Seated at the table was Kevin Garnett, Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, Sam Cassell and Kendrick Perkins.
Perkins posted the photo on social media.
That post began to beg the question: Where was Ray Allen?
Ray Allen was literally trending on social media last night because of his absence, but it’s also important to note that other member of that Celtics championship team also were not present.
Insert notables like: Glen Davis, Tony Allen, Eddie House, Scott Pollard, Brian Scalabrine, Leon Powe, Scot Pollard and James Posey that were noticeably absent from the photo, as well.
Allen was in fact enjoying time with his family during the Fourth of July holiday with family, I’m told.
That Celtics championship team was powerful.
Under head coach, Doc Rivers, that Celtics team finished with a 66-16 record and beat a Kobe Bryant-led Los Angeles Lakers team in the NBA Finals.
A ten-time NBA All Star, Allen played Jesus Shuttlesworth in Spike Lee’s epic He Got Game film alongside Denzel Washington.
This past spring, the Hall of Famer had his No.34 jersey retired at UConn. He spent three years at UConn where he was USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year in 1995 and an All-American and Big East Player of the Year in 1996.
Allen has hit the most 3-pointers in NBA history at 2,973. Allen was also a recipient of good screens from his big guys which allowed him to shoot with space from the 3-point line.
Being a recipient of good screens and catches couldn’t have been truer than Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs when Allen had one of the most clutch shots of his career.
With 5.2 seconds left in the fourth quarter, the Spurs had a 95-92 lead in the game and a 3-2 lead in the series.
Allen hit a game-tying 3-pointer that sent the game into overtime.
Allen is now proudly looking at the next generation of shooters after he left his mark as a premium NBA shooter.
Allen leaving the NBA ushered in everybody appears to be shooting at a higher clip.
His observation of it is fascinating.
“It’s crazy, because there’s so many great shooters,” Ray Allen told Scoop B Radio.
“I will say that as I left, shooting did drop, it seemed like it fell off a little bit. It was like three or four good shooters in the league, but now you see there’s a huge growth where a lot of teams have multiples and we’re talking about the BIG teams. You can’t shoot on this team if you can’t shoot threes. So what’s interesting is that now there’s a gap in the middle, and what’s gonna happen is, one of these kids in high school who’s gonna get really big and have really smooth moves is gonna be making baskets and making baskets that’s gonna dominate the game and flip it back over, he’ll dominate it for years. And then the game is going to have to adjust.”
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Reason Ray Allen Didn’t Attend Celtics Championship Dinner Revealed