I Hate How Much I Love Ray Allen's Famous Corner Three

Before Steph Curry was a thing, it was Ray Allen who was considered one of if not the greatest shooters in NBA history. If you can believe it, it’s already been 5 years since his famous game/title saving corner three against the San Antonio Spurs. Here’s the play

Look I know there are some Celtics fans out there that will find this video hard to watch. I know it took me years to finally accept and appreciate what a goddamn shot this was. In my opinion it was the perfect display of Ray’s greatness. You see nowadays guys step out of bounds time and time again when they get into that tight corner because they aren’t used to the spacing. But that was maybe the most impressive thing about Ray. He’s made that shot 100000x in his head, and nobody knew the dimensions of the court better than him. He didn’t even give a second to look down and line up for the shot, he just knew where he had to be and it was as automatic as automatic can be. If you appreciate the art of shooting it’s impossible not to love that play. The whole thing doesn’t work unless he recognizes in a split second that Bosh gets the offensive rebound, and that happens with about 9.1 seconds on the clock. By the time Ray gets to the corner and releases his shot, there’s around 6.9 (nice) seconds. He went from basically the block to his follow through in just over 2 seconds, that’s madness. I remember hearing Bosh talk about this play and he said something along the lines of things happened so slow for him that once he got the ball it was his instincts that took over and he wasn’t even really sure what he saw, he just saw someone in the corner. I suppose it helps when that someone is only one of the best shooters ever.

But this play is important for a number of reasons. Everyone wants to talk about the Kawhi situation now, and how he’s mad at Pop and all this shit. Well maybe what we’re seeing today was first rooted in this play. How the hell was Duncan not in this game? You think he gets that defensive rebound or at the very least tips it so that Bosh couldn’t get a clean grip and find Ray? Yeah I know the Spurs went on to win the title the next year, but that decision still cost them another ring. Players hold grudges so you never know.

But back to Ray. What makes this play is that no one was really surprised it went in. Nobody prepares like Ray does, a guy that gets to the arena like 3 hours before tip just to get his work in, and he did it literally for 16 straight years. Here’s what he had to say after Game 6 about the shot

“It’s tough,” Allen admitted when asked how tough it is to make sure everything is set for the final shot he took in regulation to tie the game, “but believe it or not, I work quite often on it. I try to put my body in precarious situations coming from different parts of the floor, different angles to try to get my momentum moving forward.”

When you look at how this play unfolded, you see Dial extend just a little too much to contest Lebron’s three, why this does is give Bosh a WIDE OPEN lane for the offensive rebound, I mean look at this

By the time the ball comes off the rim, it’s Bosh against Danny Green/Kawhi/Ginobli. The Spurs went small so they could get out to the MIA shooters, and this is where that type of decision backfired. Once Bosh has it, he had a couple options. He could have taken his time and looked to see an open Lebron on above the break, and also had Mario Chalmers wide open in the opposite corner. I think he saw Ginobli go down and figured this was the easiest pass to make given the time left on the clock

With longer defenders like Kawhi on the opposite block, only Tony Parker was able to get remotely close, and if I had to guess Ray didn’t even see him. He went right into his shot mechanics and the rest is history. Not only were we blessed with one of the biggest shots in NBA Finals history, we also got a very quality “BANG!!’ call from Mike Breen. Again I hated this Heat team with a passion, but I am still a sucker for a great basketball moment and that’s what it was.

P.S.

For a look at what a psycho Ray was, watch this