As a New England sports fan, I have the good fortune of waking up to a reality, a euphoria even, that fans in other regions of the country can only dream of.
Boston has always been a city rich in sports history with plenty of titles to show for it, but today's crop of local teams could be on the verge of an era of dominance that would be unprecedented for any one place at one time.
The Red Sox are fresh off another sweep of the fall classic with a team that appears poised to become baseball's first dynasty of the 21st century. The Patriots are on a mission to topple the '72 Dolphins for NFL supremacy, demoralizing opponents in pursuit of the elusive 19-0 mark. The Celtics' "Big Three" has looked as good on the court as it did on paper when general manager Danny Ainge pulled off a pair of blockbuster deals in the off-season, creating instant championship buzz.
Growing up rooting for these teams, it's hard to imagine that my life as a sports fan could get any better. But, sure enough, the resurgence of the Celtics is a development made even sweeter by the fact that it marks the return of former UConn star Ray Allen from a career-long departure from the East Coast.
Looking up at the banners in Gampel Pavilion last week as the men's basketball team took on Morgan State in the 2K Sports Classic, I was reminded of a time when Storrs was to college sports what Boston is right now across professional sports. In 2004, when both the men and women's basketball teams captured national titles, the Huskies were at the center of the college hoops universe. Another banner is adorned with the numbers of the greatest players in UConn basketball history - Allen's number 34 included. While he never watched as a championship banner rose to the rafters while he played, Allen is as much a part of why the Huskies are a national power today as the two hall of fame coaches who turned each of their programs around. Jim Calhoun and Geno Auriemma are the architects of a basketball institution and Allen is the superstar who gave it a face.
I remember my first visit to Gampel, watching Allen drop an effortless 28 points on a hapless Fairfield team. He possesses a jump shot that ESPN's Scott Van Pelt rightly coined "the prettiest 'J' in the game", with his toes barely lifting off the floor and the ball fluttering from his fingertips at the top of his bound in one lightning-quick instant. He also has limitless hops, soaring to the rim whenever he feels like taking his game inside the three-point arc.
Just like his character, Jesus Shuttlesworth, in the 1998 movie "He Got Game," Allen is a prolific scorer who can do it all. In three years at UConn, he set school records for three-pointers made in a season with 115 in his junior year and also for career three-point shooting percentage with a 44.8 percent average. His 1,922 career points are fourth all-time and he still holds the distinction of being the fastest Husky to reach the 1,000 point plateau, doing so in just his sophomore season.
He engaged in memorable duels with Allen Iverson and the Georgetown Hoyas, scoring the game winner on a runner in traffic in the 1996 Big East Championship title game at Madison Square Garden, getting the last laugh in an epic rivalry of first team All-Americans before the two became NBA lottery picks that summer. Unfortunately, Allen's NCAA Championship hopes were crushed when the No. 1 seeded Huskies were knocked off by Mississippi State in the Sweet Sixteen that same year. It was time for the rest of the world to see what we were all well aware of in Connecticut. Ray Allen was on a collision course with NBA stardom.
A draft day trade bumped Allen from Minnesota to Milwaukee, where he spent the next six and a half seasons before being shipped further west to Seattle midway through the 2002-03 season. He's been a perennial all-star ever since and yet virtually the only way to watch him play in this neck of the woods has been in all-star games and short-lived playoff stints. Despite playing most of his games outside of big-time basketball cities, Allen has continued to flourish at the professional level and, in what comes as no surprise to UConn basketball fans, he's established himself as one of the league's premier shooters.
His "nice guy" persona and lack of tattoos, piercings, and court appearances have made him an extremely marketable athlete, as evidenced by his contract with the Jordan brand. He's the first UConn player to follow a lottery selection on draft day with star status in the association, setting the stage for Rip Hamilton, Ben Gordon, Emeka Okafor and the next generation of Husky standouts.
But the only thing missing now, still lingering from his college career, is a championship ring.
Allen is finally getting his chance to play for a title, and he's doing it with one of the league's oldest and most storied franchises. If he and new teammates Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce are able to restore the championship luster to Boston, they'll be immortalized along with all-time Celtic greats like Bird and Russell. His return to New England after all these years comes at a time when expectations are at unseen highs for Boston's teams and the fanhood of the locals is a constant source of both pride and bragging rights.
Allen has long been a symbol of UConn basketball, and he turned Storrs into a basketball destination for future NBA stars. Now that he's landed in Boston, he has the opportunity to write a new chapter in Celtics history, and like other UConn fans with ties to the Boston teams, it's great to have him back in our living rooms.
Chris Brodeur's New England Sports
column runs every Wednesday. Contact
him at Christopher.Brodeur@UConn.edu.
Be the first to comment on this article!