Ray Allen’s legacy spans multiple jerseys
It did not matter the moment, the stakes or the stage. The play was oddly familiar.
Ray Allen’s lasting image for his career undoubtedly came in the 2013 NBA Finals. Allen somehow found the 3-point line, toed the line, received the perfect pass from Chris Bosh and drained a 3-pointer that forced overtime and saved the Heat’s season, sending arena security guards scrambling off the court with their precious yellow rope.
He was wearing a Miami Heat jersey then. But it could have been any other team’s jersey. Allen’s impact and, most importantly, his smooth shot were the same. Allen won two championships in his 18-year career, which he officially declared to be at an end with a retirement letter posted to The Players Tribune. They both came later in his career as he became more a secondary player than a primary star.
But what makes Allen’s career unique is at every stop he had a deep impact in that franchise’s history. He was brilliant everywhere he went.
So how do we remember Allen? What jersey does he wear in the hypothetical Hall of Fame — unlike the Baseball Hall of Fame, Basketball Hall of Fame members do not wear a jersey on their plaques. Four fan bases have a rightful and probably equal claim to his legacy.
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Early in his career, Allen was the athletic, sweet-shooting superstar for the Milwaukee Bucks, perhaps the best Bucks teams since Oscar Robertson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were wearing their uniform.
Milwaukee reached the Eastern Conference Finals in 2001 with Allen averaging 25.1 points per game and posting a 56.3 percent effective field goal percentage. In his Conference Finals duel with Allen Iverson, Ray Allen averaged 27.1 points per game, shooting better than 50 percent from beyond the arc.
Outside of Robertson and Abdul-Jabbar, Allen may be the best player in Bucks history. He brought the franchise the closest it had come to a championship since the late 1970s at the very least. But as that trio — Allen, Glenn Robinson, Sam Cassell — fell apart, Allen got a new start in Seattle, where he was the last great star for the Seattle Supersonics before their move to Oklahoma City.
Here Allen flourished into a bigger star, really shaping his 3-point shooting reputation. He helped the Sonics get out of the first round with a roster that just never seemed able to come together. Allen certainly spent his prime and his best seasons in Seattle. But never had the impact and deep playoff runs he had in Milwaukee.
When Allen arrived in Boston, his career and the respect for what he did only grew. He had found his fit with a roster full of stars with championship aspirations. Allen was not the same player he was when he guided Milwaukee deep into the playoffs, but this was his title team.
Allen likely gets remembered most as a Celtic despite the noticeable drop off in production and how he slowly began to show signs of aging.
Still, he made 7-of-9 3-pointers in the clinching Game Six against the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2008 Finals and averaged 20.3 points per game in his first Finals series. He made 22 3-pointers in the six-game series. He had finally reached the mountaintop.
In the 2010 Finals, Allen kept the pressure on. He scored 32 points with eight 3-pointers in Game 2 as the Celtics fell in seven games.
Of course, Allen’s most iconic moment came in a Heat jersey. That 3-pointer in Game 6 against the San Antonio Spurs. That will be the moment replayed for all of time as it saved the Heat’s season and made their legacy.
So how do we remember Ray Allen? What jersey does he wear in our memories?
The simple answer is all of them. He made a lasting impact at every stop he made. His most iconic moments came after his prime. His best seasons came in relative obscurity.
History will probably remember Allen as a Celtic most of all. The history of that franchise and the championship he won as still one of the key players likely puts him over the top in the national memory of his career. His shot with the Heat will get the most replays.
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His seasons with the Bucks and Sonics get pushed to the wayside. More of a footnote on his great career. But he was truly great for them too. Milwaukee and Seattle fans should still remember him as their own. They have ownership over his career as much as any other team.
And this shared ownership is what makes Ray Allen truly great. He made a lasting impact everywhere he went and succeeded in his sure-to-be Hall-of-Fame career.