Rumors

Ray Allen: ‘One of the things that I'm devastated about is all the big men that don't have a place in the game anymore. It used to be amazing to watch guys score. We used to throw the ball in the block and guys could score or you got to be a great passer out of the post. Two-man game. Like, it's arguable who the best power forward of all time is. A lot of people will say Tim Duncan. We'll never see another Tim Duncan again the way the game is played right now because we've taken that from the big players, the big guys, because we won't allow, coaches aren't playing this throw the ball in and out. I like shooting threes and that was something I I like driving to the hole. I love pick and roll. I love posting up. So I would assume or I would think that it will revert back at some point because there's going to be some bigs that come along where you got to just because they're too good.’

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Ray Allen: 'What's happened is we've lost the mid-range game and I hear coaches yelling no mid-range shots. And then we've lost post-up players. Bigs don't even have a place in the game anymore. That to me is the tragedy because now what we do is we have these guys that work in basketball offices that are analytic guys that sit here and say why we need to shoot more threes than twos. And they just they convince the upper management and everybody else that guys that never played the game, you should be shooting more threes than twos. And I just think, and here's the thing, here's the proof. Okay, so Golden State won, they shoot a lot of threes and Boston won and they shot a lot of threes and they lost because they shot a lot of threes as well. But this past year, look at Oklahoma City and Indiana. Both had guys that could shoot threes because you need three-point shooters out there and you set the game up, but they were killing on pick and roll in the mid-range. Yes. So when I came in the game, you had some incredible pick and roll players. You had some incredible mid-range guys. It was it was insane. You could learn so much from these these dudes and the game is just we've lost that. And that's an art.'

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Heat Central: Bobby Portis on being a Heat fan his whole life, and conversations he had with Giannis about coming to Miami: “I’ve been a Heatle. I’ve been rocking with the Heat since the Mavericks and the Spurs in the finals. Ray Allen in the corner, Chris Bosh offensive rebound, pass out to the corner, bow! Everybody thought it was over with the ropes out. The conversations I had with Giannis has just always been about winning. Where can we go to win? How can we get another championship? Once you guys talk to him at 3 you’ll understand all he cares about is winning.”

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Ray Allen: "History will teach you things that you look back, because now you can't, like right now they're trying to say the January 6th didn't happen, it was a peaceful protest. And everybody's litigating it, but in 10 years from now you look back and be like, those people stormed the Capitol. You can't, this is what it is. We got the footage, and now the talking heads can't sit back and try to convince us that we seen something different. Because history, when we look back, it compiles everything that took place, and it says this is who Trump was. He was a racist, he was a narcissist, he was a misogynist, he was a megalomaniac, he wanted to be a dictator. All these things that he is aren't good for America, and specifically aren't good for Black people."

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Ray Allen: "I was always an inquisitive mind. I moved, when I moved to South Carolina, I was 13. I walked into history class, and you know, I lived in England, I lived in California, I lived in Germany, and so I was about the world. What you learn is the American way is not the it's not the best way, it's just a way. And I remember in the eighth grade, I walk into the class, and first time I get the textbook, and you know, you got natural history, you got US history, you got world history. The book was, said South Carolina. And so I was like, so we're the history in the eighth grade was just nothing but South Carolina. How short-sighted or small-minded could you be? So we're going to do history all year on one state."

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Mike Beuoy?: Here's an alternative look at the biggest shots in modern NBA history, this time sorted by change in title probability (rather than KL divergence). Some my think this is a better list - we get Jordan twice here. But Ray Allen's shot gets downgraded.

bsky.app

"What it says about Sam is that he's been pretty good with his asset management," the second executive said. "If you start to trace the asset trees of the things he's done, there aren't very many dead ends. He's going to try to use every piece that he can -- every aspect of the trade, every trade exception, every draft pick, every little thing -- and he's going to try to make something out of it. He has always had a vision, and he's always been decisive." The executive added, "People would say it's obvious when he took over the Sonics to trade Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis and do a rebuild, but at the time it was not obvious. They were only one year removed from having a pretty good team, and [Allen and Lewis] were regarded as good players and the rebuild was regarded as uncertain."

ESPN

Jim Owczarski: 🚨AJ Green sets the #Bucks single-season record for made 3-pointers, knocking down a 28-footer from Cormac Ryan.🚨

bsky.app

?NBA?: A CAREER NIGHT FOR AJ GREEN ?? 35 PTS (career-high) 5 REB 4 AST 2 STL 11 3PM (new Bucks franchise record) The previous record for most 3PM in a game by a Buck was 10, set by Damian Lillard (Nov. 2, 2024), and Ray Allen (Apr. 14, 2002).

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Manu Ginobili on losing 2013 Finals: That was the worst moment of my career. In other words, the worst moment was two days before that. Two days before that game, game number six, we are winning by three points. 15 seconds left. Q. The famous Ray Allen three-pointer. Ginobili: Well, LeBron hits a three-pointer... I don't think he'll get within two. Well, I don't know. The thing is, something happens that never happens before, and you just see that the party was getting ready to celebrate our championship, and then everything starts to be put away and we have to go back to game seven. Match seven, two whole days without sleep. In other words, I didn't sleep from the sixth to the seventh.

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Michael Redd: This will shock you, but let's talk about it. Someone recently asked me which, out my dozen NBA season, was my favorite. Most of you are probably thinking some time between 2003 and 2008, some time between becoming the unquestioned No, 1 option for Milwaukee, making an All-Star game, and winning a Gold medal. That's not it, though. My fave season, the one I think back to the most, is my rookie season! Yeah, I barely played in games that season. The only treatment I needed that season was for bench splinters. So...why? Well, first off, I valued not playing. I valued learning from proven pros like Ray Allen, Glenn Robinson, Sam Cassell, Lindsey Hunter, Tim Thomas and, of course, Coach Karl. Getting to practice with them, getting a courtside seat to see them, made me a better player. I wanted to play, but I was a second round pick on a stacked roster. I took all I could out of that season.

Twitter

NBA Courtside: Paul Pierce talking about Old School vs New Era defense: “Well, I think we had more guys that ran through the 30 screens then than now and you had to fight through those screens. I mean, I remember, you know, Ray Allen, Reggie Miller, Rip Hamilton. I think you had a number of guys you had to chase. Like Steph in this era is pretty much the only one. It was way more pin downs back then. Now it’s kind of like, oh, you just switch now. Where we fought through the screens like you ain’t no because the one reason we had to fight through the screens because if you switch, we punish the switch in the post, not in the perimeter. We punish the switch. Get in the block. Get down there. I mean, so it was a difference. So I don’t know. Like I think we’d be just as good defensively.” (Via @NFGShow )

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In Boston, Allen is an icon, though not everyone has forgiven him for leaving the Celtics as a free agent in 2012. But on this mid-November Friday night, he is first and foremost a father, rooting for his son. Before returning to pregame preparation, Walter Ray Allen III — known, like his father, as Ray — walks over to wrap his dad in a hug.

New York Times

It’s mostly a coincidence that the younger Allen, a junior guard at Emerson, landed at a college in downtown Boston, across the street from Boston Common. Though he plays his home games in the shadow of TD Garden, one mile from the Celtics’ arena, his Division III program is a far cry from the big leagues, illustrated by the attendance of 293 for the 71-67 win against Western Connecticut. He is forging his own basketball journey, one he calls an “unorthodox path.” After playing for his father at Gulliver Prep, a high school in Pinecrest, Fla., he started his college career as a preferred walk-on at Rhode Island before transferring to Emerson before the start of his sophomore season.

New York Times