Ray Allen hasn’t played in the NBA since 2014, but over the course of the last two years, there have been lots of rumors about him potentially making a return to the league to help a championship contender. Most recently, the Warriors reportedly thought about trying to sign Allen to their team in the offseason. But those rumors are about to become a thing of the past, because Allen just announced that he is officially retiring from the NBA in an emotional letter he wrote to his younger self on The Players’ Tribune.
"I write this to you today as a 41-year-old man who is retiring from the game," Allen writes. "I write this to you as a man who is completely at peace with himself."
In his letter, Allen addresses the 13-year-old version of himself as he gets off the school bus at a new school in Dalzell, South Carolina. He talks about the obstacles he’ll face as he tries to make new friends at the school following his father’s Air Force transfer:
You’re used to being the kid that nobody knows. The majority of your existence has been about trying to find new friends, trying to show people that you’re a good person and that you mean no harm. You’re used to being an outsider.
He also talks about the pushback he’ll receive when he decides to attend the University of Connecticut to play college basketball:
When you start getting attention from colleges, some of your own teammates will say things like, "UConn? You’ll sit on the bench for four years."
And after he writes about playing in the NBA and the pursuit of championships, he talks about how it’s the journey, not the destination, that brings happiness in the league. He also tells an amazing story about how he spent the morning after Game 7 of the 2013 NBA Finals in a dentist’s chair instead of sleeping after a wild celebration:
You lay down in bed at about five in the morning, but you just can’t sleep. Finally, around seven o’clock, you give up on sleep and creep downstairs. All your friends and family have come over to your house to celebrate — they’re all passed out on couches, sound asleep. You tiptoe around them on the way to the kitchen to make some breakfast. The sun is coming up, the house is quiet. You have achieved exactly what you set out to do. But you’re still restless.
You can check out the entire letter here. Allen finishes his NBA career with two NBA titles and 10 NBA All-Star selections and is the league’s all-time 3-point scoring leader with 2,973 3-point field goals made. Enjoy retirement, Ray.
