Needing three three-pointers to tie Reggie Miller’s all-time mark, Ray Allen had a chance to make NBA history in front of friends and family on February 7, 2011. Instead, the Celtics great decided it could wait a few days.
“We played the Bobcats the game before,” recalled Allen on this week’s episode of Vince’s Places, a new ESPN+ series hosted by NBA legend Vince Carter and produced by Peyton Manning. “My family lives in Charlotte so everybody was like, ‘That’s so awesome, we’re going to get to see you break the three-point record!’ And I said, ‘No, you’re not. It’s not going to happen tonight.’”
Knowing he’d be back in Boston later that week for a nationally-televised showdown with the rival Lakers—with Miller conveniently broadcasting the game for TNT—Allen went out of his way to avoid the record, attempting just two three-pointers (he made both) in the loss to Charlotte.
“Every time I got the ball, I would take a step in,” Allen admitted. “Nobody knows that. Now they do.”
Back on the parquet floor at TD Garden, it took Allen all of 10 minutes to set the record, taking Miller’s crown as the NBA’s career three-point king with 1:47 to go in the first quarter. “I thought it would be more appropriate for the record to happen in Boston,” said Allen, who topped the NBA’s all-time three-point list for over a decade before recently being passed by Stephen Curry. “To do it against the Lakers and share that moment with Reggie while he was there will always be incredible.”
Allen and the Celtics (particularly teammates Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce) were estranged for many years following his defection to Miami as a free agent in 2012, but that feud was put to rest when the Hall-of-Famer returned to Boston for Garnett’s number retirement ceremony earlier this year.
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