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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 )
Paul Pierce talking about Old School vs New Era defense:
— NBA Courtside (@NBA__Courtside) February 27, 2026
“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… https://t.co/aPOz8zFS7S pic.twitter.com/5lIEW3PCVx
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.
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.
Introductions aren’t always simple for a college student named Ray Allen. Is that your name? Really? So your name’s Ray Allen? And you live in Boston? “Yes,” Allen will say. “And that’s my dad.”
It’s a good conversation starter. But with such a recognizable name, Allen can’t find much anonymity on the court. “Everyone (wants) to go at him like, ‘I can put that notch in my belt because I took down Ray Allen’s kid,’” Emerson coach Bill Curley said. “The fact that he’s stuck with this and is still competing, it says a lot about how strong and tough he is. A lot of other kids would just (decide), ‘I’m going to go do something else.’” Allen has stayed with it. And though he isn’t the shooter his father is (“nobody is,” he says), teammate Brendan Taylor said Allen is “one of our best defenders.”
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Despite his own Hall of Fame career, the elder Ray Allen never wanted to push basketball on his sons. “That has never been my mission,” he said. “All my dreams have already come true.” Instead, he wants to help his children achieve their dreams. That was why early in the younger Allen’s high school tenure, his father asked him what he wanted from the game. Before then, the younger Allen hadn’t expressed much interest in maximizing his basketball talent. He said he didn’t start pushing himself until he was in the eighth grade and his younger brother, Walker, eclipsed him as a basketball player. Ray III calls Walker, who now plays at The Hotchkiss School, “a basketball savant.” “And not just because he’s my brother,” he said. “He was a sixth-grader beating on me. I’m bigger than him, but he has a flashier game. So, I’m like, ‘I’ve got to get all that.’”
Vince Carter: You’ll be a Hall of Famer. When your time comes, who will be sitting up there with you? Have you thought about that? Stephen Curry: I actually haven't. I mean, you, Steve Nash, Reggie Miller, and Ray Allen are like the names that I think off top. Carter: Those are some of the ones I actually said. Curry: Those are my guys, it's crazy to even say out loud.
Paul Pierce: Ray Allen was the first to go. That's when he went to Miami. Me and KG was a little older and we wasn't able to carry a team night in and night out anymore. We could have done some things a little differently to extend our run if we had have made the right trades or draft with some younger guys. But we saw the writing on the wall toward the end cuz I think we got we got handled by the Knicks. That was our last series together in the first round, we put up a little fight, but the writing was on the wall all year and we was dealing with injuries. Guys was getting older and Danny Ainge was very honest about the whole process with it. He was like, "If I got to make some moves, I will, but I won't just send you anywhere. It'll be something we'll talk about if there's this opportunity. So, we was just like, all right what's the deal after the season? We talked middle of the season. It's like, I got a deal, I can send y'all to Brooklyn. You got a young core over there with D-Will and Joe Johnson. I was like, man, that's man, K, we could probably win with that.
“Get more elevation,” McBride remembered Allen telling him. “He said, ‘In the 15 minutes pregame, I work out hard. You can’t flip it on and off.’ Those type of things stick with me. Anytime he shoots the ball, whether it’s for fun, he was always locked in. And those were always the things I feel like help me more because I’m more locked in and focused on my jumper.”
Nick DePaula: Stephen Curry pulls up to Brooklyn in the Foamposite Pro — a nod to Ray Allen’s Jesus Shuttlesworth character in “He Got Game”
Stephen Curry pulls up to Brooklyn in the Foamposite Pro — a nod to Ray Allen’s Jesus Shuttlesworth character in “He Got Game” pic.twitter.com/6o5jJxzkpj
— Nick DePaula (@NickDePaula) December 29, 2025
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Allan Houston: In the 90s, I still think someone should do something on this — that our position in that decade, I don’t know if there’s ever been another era, at least for the two-guard position. You go down all the names — Mitch Richmond, Michael Jordan, Reggie Miller, AI, Stackhouse, Ray Allen, Steve Smith, Rip Hamilton, Michael Redd — just keep going. Every single night that position was really trying to own their space, and you had to do it in so many different ways. With Reggie you had to guard him differently than Michael Jordan, Mitch Richmond, or J.R. Rider. The individual matchups every night at that position are what I miss — and what basketball misses. It’s just that shooting guard battle. Those matchups, and the way we had to score, that’s what’s missing. The game’s smarter and more efficient now, but I’m not sure it’s as fun to watch.
These days Allen aims to stretch himself mentally by playing word scramble games like Quartiles. “It [Quartiles] helps me kind of cycle my brain, because you have to think and it sometimes can be uncomfortable, but you have to learn how to be a critical thinker, so that when you do deal with adverse situations, at least your mind starts to work.” Allen likens the process of keeping your mind agile to maths problems you did at school. “When you did math when you were younger, you said, ‘How am I going to use this later in life?’ Well, math starts with a problem. You figure out an equation to solve it, and then you show your work and you come out with the answer, right or wrong. You follow the process and figure out what allows you to get to that solution.”
Foodies who miss the former Middletown eatery “grown” may once again be able to taste its culinary creations here in Connecticut. In May, the organic fast food restaurant announced its launch of a nationwide franchising program. It currently has just one location, in Miami. The eatery is the creation of Shannon Allen and her husband, Ray Allen, an NBA champion and Hall of Fame athlete.
The inspiration for the couple’s business came after their son Walker was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as a toddler. The family was often on the road while Ray was playing in the NBA, and they were juggling life with five children. Finding quick and healthy meals for Walker and the rest of the family proved challenging, and Shannon realized there were no fast, affordable options for organic and nutritious food.