RAY ALLEN IS NBA royalty. A two-time NBA champion with the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat, 10-time All-Star, Olympic gold medallist and Hall-of-Famer, Allen enjoyed a glittering career you can divide into distinct stages.
There’s the young Milwaukee Buck, an athletically gifted shooting guard who duked it out with the likes of Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter and Tracey McGrady in the late ’90s/early 2000s, before moving to the now defunct Seattle Supersonics. This version of Ray Allen starred in Spike Lee’s He Got Game, opposite Denzel Washington, who legend has it, went rogue and got the jump on the young prodigy in the game’s pivotal one-on-one scene, before Allen handled his business, as per the script.
Then there’s Celtics Ray Allen, who after losing some of his athleticism due to injury, became one of the league’s all-time great three-point shooters, helping the Celtics to a title in 2008.
Allen his Melbourne for the NBA X NBL Melbourne series – Instagram I @trayfour
Finally there’s Miami Heat Ray Allen, the veteran presence who added stability to ‘The Heatles’ and whose game-tying shot in game 6 of the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs, helped the Heat to a championship that may have just saved LeBron James’ legacy.
Each version of Allen adds up to a portrait of all-round excellence, something that’s sometimes overshadowed by his prowess as a shooter. “I wouldn’t label myself as a shooter,” says Allen, who’s chatting to Men’s Health today in his capacity as an NBA ambassador ahead of the New Orleans Pelicans preseason games against Melbourne United and South East Melbourne Phoenix at Rod Laver Arena this weekend. “When I won championships, I was a shooter on teams that I played on, but, you know, I’ve always prided myself on being a basketball player and trying to become a master of all things. I love the game for everything that I was able to do and you work on all angles and all possibilities.”
In that respect, Allen advises young ballers not to limit themselves. “A lot of people will limit them as it is,” warns Allen. “So work on everything. To be a great athlete you have to be in tremendous shape, because fatigue makes cowards of us all. So you can condition yourself so that when you get out there on court, you won’t take shortcuts.”
Allen is also a big advocate of stretching, advising that you keep yourself limber on a daily basis. “It’s one thing to lift weights, but when you’re sitting around watching movies or TV at home, do some stretches,” he advises. “It’s a way to keep the space between your hips, your ankles, your knees, limit headaches and stiffness in your back. Kids don’t think they need it because they don’t feel any difference, but long term it’s going to benefit them.”
It’s advice Allen wishes he received as a kid. “I wish somebody was telling me when I was younger, that’s the whole point.”
Allen in Melbourne – @trayfour
These days Allen aims to stretch himself mentally by playing word scramble games like Quartiles. “It [Quartiles] helps me kind of cycle my brain, because you have to think and it sometimes can be uncomfortable, but you have to learn how to be a critical thinker, so that when you do deal with adverse situations, at least your mind starts to work.”
Allen likens the process of keeping your mind agile to maths problems you did at school. “When you did math when you were younger, you said, ‘How am I going to use this later in life?’ Well, math starts with a problem. You figure out an equation to solve it, and then you show your work and you come out with the answer, right or wrong. You follow the process and figure out what allows you to get to that solution.”
You can use that same problem-solving process, Allen believes, to work out problems in all aspects of your life, whether that’s beating the double-team in a game of pick-up or a pesky work problem.
Shooters shoot, players play. As this Ray Allen makes clear, they also never stop looking for ways to improve themselves.
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