From the Outside

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Here I was, landing again in a city  where fans preferred someone else. The only way to respond was to work as hard as usual. If not harder.Ray Allen—record holder for the most three-point shots made in NBA history and winner of two NBA championships—has often felt outside the NBA’s culture of lavish celebrity and embittered rivalries. Despite his dynamic success as a college player for UConn and then professionally for the Bucks, Sonics, Celtics, and Heat, Allen’s fierce work ethic, determination, and introspective attitude have set him apart from his peers. It is through this mentality that Allen has harnessed his crowning achievement: pure focus amid the noise around him.In From the Outside, Allen recalls his younger days as the son of an Air Force engineer—traveling from place to place and eventually settling in the racially divided South, where basketball was the constant that kept him grounded and taught him about responsibility, respect, and focus—the secret to landing those perfect free throws and three-point shots. He opens up to his fans for the first time about his fellow players, coaches, owners, and friends, including George Karl, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Paul Pierce. Most important, he provides an insider’s view to a career in the NBA, and the highs and lows that accompany the wondrous journey, which included a starring role in Spike Lee’s basketball drama, He Got Game, considered one of the best films about the sport.  This is the portrait of a gifted athlete and a complex man with a highly defined philosophy about the game and how it should be played—an ideal that often divided him from power-hungry colleagues and coaches, inspired others, and made possible the greatest shot of his career: the unforgettable three-pointer that tied Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals. According to Allen, success in basketball is as much about what happens off the court as on: teamwork, loyalty, devotion, and commitment are the true essence of the game—and life itself.