Hoops Habit
Fansided

NBA: Ray Allen ‘won’t officially retire’

By Phil Watson

Mar 19, 2014; Boston, MA, USA; Miami Heat shooting guard Ray Allen (34) dribbles the ball as Boston Celtics guard Avery Bradley (0) defends during the fourth quarter at TD Garden. The Celtics won 101-96. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 19, 2014; Boston, MA, USA; Miami Heat shooting guard Ray Allen (34) dribbles the ball as Boston Celtics guard Avery Bradley (0) defends during the fourth quarter at TD Garden. The Celtics won 101-96. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit

Ray Allen just turned 40 and if he never laces up the kicks for another minute of NBA action, the countdown to his enshrinement in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020 is well under way.

Allen, a 10-time All-Star with a pair of NBA championship rings in his 18-year NBA career, didn’t play in 2014-15 after going unsigned as a free agent.

ALSO ON HOOPSHABIT: The NBA’s 50 Greatest Players of All-Time

There were reports for much of the season that Allen was on the verge of coming back, the most serious of those being a February report in The Washington Post that said Allen was ready to pick among the Cleveland Cavaliers, Chicago Bulls, Washington Wizards, Atlanta Hawks, Golden State Warriors and Miami Heat.

But Allen never followed through and the entire season came and went without the NBA’s all-time leader in 3-pointers.

Allen told the Hartford Courant over the weekend that he didn’t miss it.

More from NBA

“I realized how much time I missed not being home with my kids,” Allen said. “I probably missed it in the Finals. Watching Cleveland and Golden State play, it just seemed like an epic battle that required a lot of precision on the floor and that’s when I felt, that was probably the only time that I felt like, ‘Man, I should have been out there.’”

Allen is planning to finish his communications degree at the University of Connecticut, where he played three seasons from 1993-96. He’s about a full year away.

“I haven’t decided whether I’m going to do the fall semester or the spring semester,” Allen said. “I started a couple of years ago. I took a couple of courses online, so I got a start. I learned some good stuff, too. It was a very good part of my year. I spent a good part of time on it.”

Allen made some waves when he gave away some basketball shoes earlier this summer, but he’s not closing the door on the NBA … at least not completely.

“I haven’t said anything about that and I won’t officially retire,” Allen said. “Because if something came to the table, contractually and situationally, I want to be able to take a strong look at it. I don’t want to be that guy that says he’s retiring and then is coming back.”

If he is done, Allen leaves the NBA 27 3-pointers shy of being the first player in league history to sink 3,000 of the long-range bombs. He led the NBA in makes from distance three times in his career, in 2001-02 with the Milwaukee Bucks, in 2002-03 when he split the season between the Bucks and Seattle SuperSonics and in 2005-06 with Seattle.

Allen was a seven-time All-Star with the Bucks and Sonics before he was traded to the Boston Celtics on draft night in 2007, the first move made by the Celtics to rapidly reload that summer.

A little more than a month later, Boston landed Kevin Garnett in a massive deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves as the Celtics, with Allen taking a much lesser role than he was accustomed to playing, went on to win the NBA title in June 2008.

Allen took a reserve role with the Heat in 2013, hitting one of the iconic shots in NBA history to help Miami stave off elimination in Game 6 at home before the Heat went on to beat the San Antonio Spurs in seven games.

He began his career being traded. After he was the fifth overall pick in the 1996 NBA Draft by the Timberwolves, he was dealt to the Bucks on draft night along with a first-round pick in 1998 in exchange for the rights to the fourth overall pick in that draft, Stephon Marbury.

Live Feed

The New Orleans Pelicans poor injury luck has already begun
The New Orleans Pelicans poor injury luck has already begun /

Pelican Debrief

  • NBA 2K24 Soundtrack: Full List of ArtistsApp Trigger
  • NBA 2K24 Clothing Brands RevealedDBLTAP
  • Los Angeles Sparks: Recapping their six-game winning streakFanSided
  • NBA 2K24 Pre-Load TimesDBLTAP
  • WNBA players that deserve a signature shoe as the league developsFanSided

    • Allen is also in the NBA’s all-time top 10 in free-throw shooting, hitting 89.4 percent of his attempts in his 18 seasons. He had the distinction of putting up the fourth-best free-throw shooting season in NBA history in 2008-09 … without leading the league in the category.

    He hit at a .952 clip that season, finishing second to Jose Calderon of the Toronto Raptors, who made an NBA single-season record 98.1 percent of his foul shots.

    Given that shooting and floor spacing is at such a premium in today’s NBA, Allen could probably still find a job just about anywhere he wanted to.

    But although he talked about being open to the right situation, it’s likely we’ve seen the last of Jesus Shuttlesworth in an NBA uniform.

    His next stop is most likely Springfield.

    Next: The 30 Best Centers of All-Time

    More from Hoops Habit