Published February 9, 2011
When Ray Allen made his first NBA three-pointer, “The Macarena” was the hottest song in the country.
“Home Improvement” was a top-10 TV show. It was still weeks before Tom Cruise and the rest of the world fell in love with Renee Zellweger, Jerry Maguire’s secretary.
Ray Allen showcases his beautiful shot against the Bulls in 2008. (AP)
Los del Rio have long since faded away and Tim Allen now only exists in digital form as Toy Story’s Buzz Lightyear, but Ray Allen’s jumpshot still has more legs than Zellweger’s career.
Allen, the Celtics’ shooting guard, continues his march into the record books Thursday when he becomes the NBA’s all-time leading three-point shooter against the arch-rival Lakers at the TD Garden.
Right now, Allen’s 2,559 career three-pointers leave him just one short of the the league’s record, but he won’t be there for long. In Allen’s 14+ seasons in the NBA, he has made an average of 2.4 three-pointers a game.
That first three-pointer came in Philadelphia, when Allen was a rookie with the Milwaukee Bucks. In the next day’s newspapers the Associated Press made no mention of either of the two threes Allen sunk, but it did highlight Allen’s key contributions as a rookie starter in his first NBA game:
Allen, who finished with 13 points, scored 6 during a stretch late in the fourth quarter that turned a close game into a 111-103 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers in the season opener tonight.
Allen also hit the game-winning foul shot to ice the game after Allen Iverson, also a rookie, was tagged with a technical. For basketball fans, looking back at that is poetic.
Since then, Allen’s been known as a fitness freak with a shot as sweet as his bald ‘do. Along with an Ortiz double off the wall and the crowd at Gillette during a Tom Brady 2-minute drill, Allen’s jump shot is one of the current Three Wonders of the New England Sports World.
In his second NBA game, Allen’s Bucks beat the Celtics. Twelve years later, Allen helped lead the C’s to their NBA-record 17th championship. Now, as Allen cements his place in the NBA record books, the 35-year-old’s boundless energy is re-charging the Celtics’ hopes for banner No. 18.