I'm gonna start rooting for the home teams now with Randy "The Freak" Moss with the Patriots and Ray "Jesus" Allen on the Celtics...
Uncle Ray's back!
It's common knowledge that Ray Allen, the Boston Celtics' newest star, has an extensive New England background, considering he played for the University of Connecticut for three years in the 1990s.
What isn't such common knowledge is that Allen, a shooting guard with a silky-smooth shot, also played baseball as a youth, excelling to the point where "Little League parents were pushing for him to jump to the next level," according to this online biography.
Red Sox fans got a peak at that baseball talent last night, when Allen threw out the opening pitch at Fenway Park -- and took pride in surprising his catcher, Coco Crisp, with a fastball with good movement.
From the AP:
Ray Allen, acquired by the Boston Celtics from Seattle last Thursday, threw an impressive ceremonial first pitch with decent movement to CF Coco Crisp. It didn't seem to bother Crisp, who missed his fourth straight game due to a sore thumb on his catching hand.
"I think he was surprised a little bit," Allen said with a smile. "I don't know if he thought I had something on it or I turned the ball over. I played baseball."
Maybe it's me, but the way for a basketball player to endear himself to Boston sports fans probably isn't to surprise an outfielder out with injury to his catching hand with a wacky pitch.
You know what might do it, though? That same biography says Allen could "hit the ball a mile" as a Little Leaguer. Maybe it's time to give Julio Lugo another rest and see what Allen's got?
New Celtic Allen has the right moves-
** JUST LEAVE THE ORANGE NIKES IN SEATTLE!!**
By Peter May, Globe Staff | July 3, 2007
If Ray Allen plays as well as he talks, the Celtics will be a very happy group next season. Right now, there's no reason to believe he won't, given his history on and off the court.
The Celtics' signature acquisition from draft night met the media yesterday and the moment should be chronicled and passed on to all who come after him. Everything he said was perfect, except for when he said he had "two perfect pairs of feet." He quickly made the correction. Just like he shoots -- stopping on a dime.
His agent asked when was the last time the Celtics had anyone quite like this. Who knows? Ricky Davis? (Actually, Raef LaFrentz is cut from the same cloth, but he's not in the same zip code as Allen.)
The Celtics can talk about Allen's scoring, and how now they feel they won't have any lulls on offense (they said the same things when they got Wally Szczerbiak, too), but from the standpoint of professionalism and mentoring, they appear to have gotten one of the best. And because he plays -- and plays well -- his is a voice that will demand to be heard and his is a path that will demand to be followed. Others on the team might have similar thoughts (like, say, Brian Scalabrine) but today's young players will follow the leader if the leader has any cachet. Allen does.
"It's invaluable," coach Doc Rivers said. "Our young guys didn't have enough to learn from in the locker room. It was Paul [Pierce] and Wally and that was about it. Ray is a consummate pro, and the things he brings to the game will resonate in our locker room. That is something I don't think the average fan gets. Players can teach other players about being a pro. Coaches can't do that. So that'll be great to have a guy like him around for that."
And there should be an eager group of guys wanting to soak in all that Allen has to offer. Think Gerald Green couldn't learn something just by watching Allen? Or Allen Ray? And do you think Pierce (who we're told loves the trade) will welcome a guy like Allen, who's a little older, a little wiser, and who also has been an multiyear All-Star to boot?
"I've been part of good teams and I've been part of bad teams," Allen said. "The question is, what lessons are we learning as we go along? I tell the young kids, you have eight or nine months of the year to play basketball and the rest of the year you can relax. So, you've got to be ready. It doesn't last forever."
He said when he was with the Bucks, he had to learn to step back and allow Sam Cassell to be Sam Cassell, Glenn Robinson to be Glenn Robinson, and Tim Thomas to be Tim Thomas (come to think of it, that was a pretty darn good team). The same holds true here. When Pierce gets on one of his rolls, Allen said he's going to enjoy it just like everyone else.
"You have to ride that, let it go," he said. "You allow him to be who he is, and it allows me to be who I am."
He is coming off a career-best 26.4 points per game season, one that was cut short by surgery to remove bone spurs from his ankles. He missed 27 games and the Sonics finished with the fifth-worst record in the league. He had a career-best 54 points in an overtime victory over the Utah Jazz last Jan. 12.
Right now, he's recovering from April ankle surgery and is taking it slow. He was late for yesterday's news conference because of his physical, and one could almost imagine the doctors holding up the X-ray of Allen's ankle and looking quizzically, like they did at the famous X-ray of LaFrentz's knee ("Where did that come from?").
But Allen says he's fine, which should augur well for him as he begins his 13th NBA season. He's at or near the top of everyone's list for best shooting touch. He's a dead-eye from the free-throw line, and while he enjoys the reputation of being one of the best 3-point shooters in the league, he actually finished 95th in 3-point accuracy, behind several Celtics, including the guy he replaced, Szczerbiak. He turns 32 later this month.
"I don't look at this game in regards to my age," he said. "A lot of the important stuff you do comes off the court. I take care of my body. I put good things into it.
"Eighty-two games is a lot of games. I tell the younger kids that one thing that shouldn't change over the course of a season is you. You always try to get to bed at a reasonable hour. You always try to eat the right food. Just getting them to understand that is half the battle."
Rivers quickly interjected: "The whole battle."
Allen, incidentally, came very close to beginning his NBA career with the Celtics. Boston had the No. 6 pick in the 1996 draft and Allen went fifth to Minnesota (which promptly traded him to Milwaukee for Stephon Marbury). Larry Bird, then a consultant for the Celtics, was a big Allen guy and was hoping he'd fall. Instead, the team got Antoine Walker.
Allen said he became a Celtics fan in college at UConn. He said he's elated to be back on the East Coast so his friends and family won't get insomnia watching him play. In short, he's a guy who wants to be here. More important, he also may be a guy who is needed here if the Celtics are going to make any kind of noise in 2007-08.
