NBA Hall of Famer Ray Allen has built a reputation as one of the greatest shooters in basketball history. But his relentless work ethic began long before he even reached the NBA.
During an appearance on the Blueprint podcast, Allen shared a story about the day he dunked on his dad, a moment that he thought marked the changing of the guard.
“I actually felt bad because it was a changing of the guard. I always felt like he was this larger-than-life figure in my world. I reveled in watching him play. He could shoot left-handed, he could shoot right-handed, he could shoot with both hands. He’d come down, and they’d be like, ‘Yo, who was this dude?’ He was a good shooter. I learned shooting separately, but I was just always in the gym.”
“This particular day, we went to the gym. In season, I’d go to the base gym, and we’d hoop at 10 every Saturday morning. The guys that played on the base team and kids from all around would come. This particular day, he left me. That’s what happened. My dad would get up in the morning. If I was still asleep, he would get up and leave. Then I learned when I was a kid. I was like, ‘My dad, he ain’t waiting for me for nothing.’ If I want to play basketball, I need to have my ass up and be waiting on him.”
That’s why I always tell kids, ‘It’s not my job to wake you up. If you ain’t up, then you don’t want it.’ ‘Dad, how come you didn’t wake me up?’ I say, ‘Because it’s not my job to wake you up.’ I learned this from my dad. So he left. I had to call my homeboy to come get me. I get to the gym, and I had to write on the board, so I’m like two teams back.”
“We got our own little team, and that’s what happened. We come down on a fast break, and he tried to stunt and go back this way, and I’m already up in the air. Then everybody was like, ‘Oh, he dunked on his pops.’ I felt bad because I’m a dude now. That very gym, I was working on dunking when I was younger, when I was 12 or 13. Now I’m 16, going to the moon with it. I was never a bragger.”
Allen grew up admiring his father, Walter Allen, who served in the United States Air Force. Because of his father’s military career, Ray spent much of his childhood moving from place to place, living in California, Germany, England, Oklahoma, and South Carolina before he eventually started high school in South Carolina.
Basketball was the constant during all these moves, and much of that passion came from watching his father play.
This story shows how Allen’s competitive mindset was shaped. His father never handed him an easy opportunity or made things easier for him. If Allen wanted to hoop, he had to show up, arrive on time, and earn everything himself.
During the same Blueprint podcast, Allen also spoke about another challenge from his childhood. As he moved around different countries and states, he found it difficult to fit in with many people, as his statement captured how he felt caught between worlds.
“White people wouldn’t mess with me because I was Black, and Black people wouldn’t mess with me because I wasn’t Black enough,” Allen revealed.
These experiences shaped Allen’s personality and his resilience. Combined with the discipline that his father instilled in him, they became the foundation for a Hall of Fame NBA career that included two NBA championships, 10 All-Star selections, and a reputation as one of the greatest shooters to ever play the game.
