Listen Live
WENZ Z1079 Mobile App 2020
Z 107.9 Featured Video
CLOSE
2014 NBA Finals Practice and Media Availability

Source: Garrett Ellwood / Getty

 

Ray Allen, one of the best three-point shooters the NBA has even seen, has finally decided to call it quits.

Allen hasn’t played since the 2013-14 season and mulled over several comebacks before deciding to officially retire. This morning he shared a letter written to his younger self published on The Players’ Tribune.

Much of Allen’s letter focuses on how hard it was for him to adjust to his new surrounding because his father’s job in the military forced his family to relocated every three years or so.

“When you get off the school bus tomorrow, you’re going to be in a whole new world,” Allen writes. “This is nothing new. Every time your father gets stationed at a new Air Force base, you have to say goodbye to your friends and start a new life. It’s the same routine once every three years or so. New school, new culture, new faces.”

He goes on to explain how most of the friends have also been from military backgrounds, but this latest move to South Carolina is different and race is playing a part.

“You spent your formative elementary school years in Britain,” he continues. “So you don’t even realize it, but to some people, you speak very proper. When you step off that school bus in South Carolina tomorrow and open your mouth, those kids are going to look at you like you’re an alien.’You talk like a white boy,’ they’ll say.”

Allen tells himself not to worry about the other kids and to focus on one thing: basketball.

Read the rest of Ray Allen’s letter to his 13-year-old self, where he also speaks about the transitioning out of the NBA, here.

SOURCE: The Players’ Tribune | PHOTO CREDIT: Garrett Ellwood / Getty, Twitter

 

ARTICLE FROM: TheUrbanDaily.com

Article Courtesy of The Players’ Tribune and The Urban Daily

First Picture Courtesy of Garrett Ellwood, Getty Images, and The Urban Daily

Tweet and Second Picture Courtesy of Twitter and The Urban Daily

Ray Allen Announces Retirement With Emotional Letter To 13-Year-Old Self  was originally published on wzakcleveland.com