After months of speculation, the ambiguity surrounding Ray Allen’s playing career, at least for the 2014-15 NBA season, is over with Allen announcing today that he’ll not be playing for any NBA team this season.
Here’s the statement released by Allen in ESPN NBA writer Brian Windhorst’s piece:
“Over the past several months, I have taken a lot of time to deliberate what is best for me,” Allen said in a statement. “I’ve ultimately decided that I will not play this NBA season. I’m going to take the remainder of this season, as well as the upcoming offseason, to reassess my situation, spend time with my family and determine if I will play in the 2015-16 season.”
Allen, 39, had been keeping in shape and doing on-court work to keep his options open and had been in contact with teams to explore his possibilities and may take meetings during the upcoming All-Star break.”
At 39 years old, along with how Allen looked for most of last season, this decision isn’t all that surprising.
Sure, there is always room on an NBA team’s roster for a veteran who a coach can count on to stretch the floor and hit 3s at an above-average clip, especially title contenders.
Those title contenders, the San Antonio Spurs, Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Chicago Bulls, Golden State Warriors or even the Dallas Mavericks all would have made sense for a late-season Ray Allen Experience. But at 39, and only available for maybe 12 minutes a night, would he really have put any of these contenders over the top?
I guess we’ll never know.
