Posts Tagged ‘Ray Allen’

All Ball Fave Five: Best Shooters Never To Win The 3-Point Shootout

September 11, 2012  ·  10:03AM

by Micah Hart

You may have noticed it’s the offseason, which means we have plenty of time to sit around and think about many of the things that make it fun to be an NBA fan. Here at All Ball, we’ll be passing the time until the start of the season with a new series, the Fave Five. Each week will count down a list of the five best, or worst … somethings. We’ll try to get creative with it. Plus we’re taking requests! If you have a suggestion for a Fave Five post, give us a shout and you may see it appear in this space over the next several weeks.

You often hear complaints during All-Star Weekend about things that need to be fixed, most often in reference to the dunk contest. “Where are the stars? That guy got robbed! How come they get so many chances?”

You know what you never hear complaints about? The 3-Point Shootout. You know why? Because the 3-Point Shootout is perfect. There’s no controversy over judging. There’s no debate over someone’s performance relative to another shooter. And best of all, the game’s best shooters typically WANT to be in the contest, which has led to a general Who’s Who of champions over the years. Bird. Price. Nowitzki. Stojakovic. Allen.

Sadly, like The Highlander, there can be only one (winner each year), which means some pretty terrific marksmen have come up empty over their careers.

In this week’s Fave Five, we take a look at the five best shooters to never win the NBA’s signature shooting event. Obviously there have been hundreds of excellent shooters, so we chose to include only those who participated in the event itself on multiple occasions but came up empty.

5. Hubert Davis

3-Point Bonafides: Perhaps the least accomplished player on this list in terms of his overall body of work, Davis was nonetheless one of the NBA’s sweetest 3-point shooters during his 12-year career. Hubert currently ranks third all time in 3-point shooting percentage, with a career .441 mark (728-1651), including a league-leading .491 with the Mavs in 1999-00.

3-Point History: Davis participated in the shootout three times, in 1996, 1998, and 2000. His best performance came in ’98, when he poured in 24 points in the semis, making 11 straight shots at one point. Unfortunately he peaked too soon and could only muster 10 more in the final round, eventually losing to Jeff Hornacek. Davis failed to make it out of the first round in his other two entries.

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Kevin Garnett Feels His Youth, Does Push-Ups Mid-Game

June 1, 2012  ·  10:03PM

by Micah Hart

The whispers are out there — this Celtics team is too old to handle the Heat, and Boston’s Big Three of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen might want to start thinking about post-career plans.

Well, Boston may indeed lose this series, but KG will have you know he’s not ready to be put out to pasture just yet, a point he decided to make during Game 3 after a hard foul by the Heat’s Udonis Haslem:



And if you don’t know, now you know.

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Here’s Something You Don’t See Every Day

January 24, 2012  ·  12:08AM

by Zettler Clay

On Monday night, the Magic traveled to Boston after a day off to face the Celtics. The Celts, who played Sunday in D.C., were without their star two-guard Ray Allen. The Magic boasted an 11-4 record and were rolling. The writing was on the wall.

Some writing. The Magic shot 25 percent from the field (16 of 65) and the highly anticipated return of Glen ‘Big Baby’ Davis to Boston was overshadowed by Brandon Bass‘ 19 points and eight boards in a molly-whopping in Boston’s favor.

But that wasn’t even the most absurd occurrence of the night:


Attaboy J-Rich! Nothing like a little subterfuge to throw the winning team off track.

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Bragging Rights Bracket: No. 1 UConn vs. No. 4 USC

March 21, 2011  ·  10:11AM



by Micah Hart

For the complete Bragging Rights rules and to vote for other matchups, click here. In this matchup the UConn Huskies, a top seed with 11 NBA players to choose from, take on the USC Trojans. Veal Scalabrine for everyone!

VS

UConn Huskies

Starters (all stats per 48 minutes):

Ray Allen, Celtics: 23.0 points, 4.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 0.2 blocks, 1.4 steals
Ben Gordon, Pistons: 21.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 0.4 blocks, 1.1 steals
Emeka Okafor, Hornets: 15.8 points, 14.6 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 2.8 blocks, 0.7 steals
Rudy Gay, Grizzlies: 23.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.3 blocks, 2.0 steals
Rip Hamilton, Pistons: 24.7 points, 3.8 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 0.0 blocks, 1.2 steals

Missed the cut: Caron Butler, Mavericks (injured); Charlie Villanueva, Pistons; A.J Price, Pacers; Hilton Armstrong, Hawks; Hasheem Thabeet, Rockets; Jeff Adrien, Warriors

Team synopsis: Wow. A dynamite scoring team for the boys from Storrs. This team is sort of the anti-LSU — all guard play with only Emeka there to patrol the paint. No real headaches in trying to determine their best lineup, though I suppose one could argue a spot for Charlie V due to UConn’s lack of size. Caron Butler would be in over Ben Gordon if healthy, but he’s missed too much time this year to be eligible. How you would stop Allen and Hamilton, two of the best shooters of all-time coming off screens, is anyone’s guess.  (more…)

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Last night in a … testament to greatness and longevity

February 11, 2011  ·  9:25AM

by Micah Hart

It seems only fitting that Jerry Sloan would choose to retire on the day Ray Allen set the all-time 3-point record. Both are a testament to where hard work and determination can get you, and both will be remembered by NBA fans for their impact on the game long after they are gone.

Congrats, Ray, and farewell, Jerry.

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Ryan Reynolds – can he ball?

November 19, 2010  ·  3:43PM

by Micah Hart

It’s Friday, which means it’s time for another edition of the tremendously popular series “Can he ball?” Last time out we discussed the merits of a certain late night talk show host who recently made his triumphant return to the airwaves, TBS’ own Conan O’Brien. You decided Coco, funny as he may be, is probably not one for the hardwood, by a vote of 40%-60%.

This week’s contestant is burning up the Internet right now, having been named earlier this week as People’s Sexiest Man Alive. That’s right, we’re talking about:

Ryan Reynolds

We know he is sexy, but is he sexy like Ray Allen‘s jumper or Dwyane Wade‘s crossover? Let’s investigate.

– First things first. Look at the abs on this guy. Athlete or no, he clearly spends time in a gym.

– Reynolds is a native of Vancouver, British Columbia. As a Canuck, you have to imagine he spent most of his time at sport playing hockey. Then again, you would probably have guessed the same of fellow BC native Steve Nash.

– As a sometimes contributor to The Huffington Post, Reynolds has written a little about sports in the past — once about running the New York marathon, and once about competitive eating, specifically, how terrible it is (slightly NSFW language). I don’t know what that says about potential basketball skills, but he is aware of ESPN, so that’s a start.

– According to filmreference.com, there is a history of athletics in the family, as his father was a semi-professional boxer.

– With reflexes like these, you’d have to think he’d make an excellent on-the-ball defender.

– Reynolds is married to Scarlett Johansson. I don’t know if that means he can play basketball, but it definitely means he’s pretty baller.

So there you have it. Not a whole lot of hoops-related evidence on this one, but it doesn’t mean you can’t make the right decision.

To the polls!

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Last night in…capturing a moment

November 12, 2010  ·  10:28AM

by Micah Hart

The Celtics beat the Heat for the second time this season, this time with a 112-107 victory on Miami’s home court. There are many other places on the webernets where you can read about What This Game Means, but I want to focus today on the hero of last night’s win, Ray Allen, who hit his first seven 3′s on the way to a team-high 35 points.

Allen is most definitely on the downslope of his terrific career, and while I feel certain he’ll eventually be a Hall of Famer, the consensus around the office this morning is that it probably won’t happen on the first ballot, and that makes me kind of sad (even though it really doesn’t mean anything), because Ray is the finest shooter these eyes have ever seen.

Allen’s performance last night was vintage. It was at once remarkable and ordinary. Remarkable because it takes an amazing amount of talent and dedication to reach his level of success as a shooter, and ordinary because making seven 3′s is just what Ray does — it was the 22nd time he’s done it in his career.

It also made me feel old. I literally said to myself last night as he continued to pour in jumpers, “They really don’t make them like him anymore.”

Who is Allen’s heir when he retires in the not-too-distant future? What NBA player has worked on their jumper to the fanatical extreme the way Ray has, to the point where he only needs thismuchroom to get off a picture perfect shot no matter where he is on the court or which way his body is leaning. The only person I can think of is Stephen Curry, but that has more to do with aesthetics than game, as I assume he’ll remain as much a facilitator as scorer deep into his NBA career.

Allen doesn’t have a ton of time left, and when he leaves, I don’t think people will notice his absence as much as they should. But when he does, it will always be nice to look back on nights like last night and marvel at the artistry, and remember that as easy as he made it look, he worked pretty hard to make it so.

UPDATE: Courtesy of a check of Basketballreference.com, Allen’s 22 games with seven 3-pointers is by far the most in NBA history (keeping in mind, of course, that the 3-point line wasn’t installed until 1979). Reggie Miller had 13, which is tied for second best with Nick Van Exel and Quentin Richardson. Thanks to John Donovan for the heads up.

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