Hall of Fame Boston Celtics shooting guard Ray Allen added to his considerable list of lifetime achievements this week, but it had only a tenuous connection to the basketball career he has built over the last three decades as a player for the Connecticut Huskies, and in the NBA afterward.
The champion Celtics wing earned his bachelor’s degree in general studies from UConn 27 years after he left the school to join the league he would win two titles in as a player. “It’s never too late to learn,” Allen told the Hartford Courant’s Joe Arruda. “This day isn’t about me, it’s about the people that helped me along the way to finish this mission, be on this journey to graduate from college.”
Buy Celtics Tickets“And you (have) got to do it by yourself but it’s made up of a lot of people around you, so I didn’t want it to be about me walking in and everybody,” he added.
Take a long look with us at the intense rivalry between two of the NBA’s most iconic shooting guards, Allen and Bryant. https://t.co/tPrNrLlxPZ
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) May 8, 2023
“These kids are on their individual journeys, so I was so inspired to be sitting next to them and talking to them … It’s hard to really describe the feeling connected to it because it’s been a pursuit of mine for such a long time.”
“I loved my time here as a student-athlete. Fortunately and unfortunately for me, I had a higher calling at the time and it was sad for me because I left here and I really enjoyed being here as an athlete.”
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