Ray Allen Breaks Down His Legendary Game 6 NBA Finals Shot

Ray Allen Breaks Down His Legendary Game 6 NBA Finals Shot

The shot in the corner over Tony Parker when we were talking earlier about preparation and Routine one of the most famous shots in NBA finals history one of the most famous shots in NBA history what went into that shot uh that day you you you think about that series that’s game six so I did that in just if you just think about those six games I

Did that at least 30 to 40 shots before every game and then every shooting routine you know before practice in between uh it was just it was just say um it was for me it was a a right that I had to to be able

To push on a daily basis to be able to move and shoot a shot where I can go sideways and then ball comes up in the air because now what happens is you see kids they don’t understand it when I’m yelling at them in practice saying

Faster faster don’t you know and and you know we’ll shoot spot shots just to get them work on their release and then I’ll put them through drills where they got to run so I have a drill where you start this basket and this basket full C court

So this team there’s three guys here three here um maybe four here and four here this side they’re on team so when they shoot they got to run to this side so each basket you got to make 15 shots so if this basket finishes with 15 first

Then they all can run down in there and help this team you know shoot their 15 and whoever’s finished wins there’s consequences you at the run but I told them what makes this drill easier for you it’s the opposite of what you think because if you shoot and you LLY gag

Down to the other end that means by the time you get down there your rest is less so now by the time you get down there now you’re about to have to shoot again and you’re always behind so when you shoot H ass down here to get more

Rest now you got two or three people in front of you now you can rest and you can gather yourself and you can go right into your shot so the Sprint is the magic that’s why you do it run as hard as you can to rest just that’s what

Happens in games and then take your game shot if you can if you can practice that so you put yourself in situations that you’re always used to being able to catch the ball sideways go up in the air because remember shooting is just that little space that you have you can’t

Come from way over there in one spot to here like you’re always in a confined space you know you watch the guy spacing and if you’re on this Baseline you just slide to the left or to the right a little bit you slide to the right and

Then you go up in the air and shoot so you just got chop chop chop chop up in the air you don’t have chance to go Chop Chop gather and then shoot yeah and so I think that’s what’s the most amazing thing about that shot though is that it

Was in such a confined space and and truthfully a confined amount of time too yeah like you know about shooting you shot so many shots in your routine you know where the basket is like like I used to facial awareness Court yeah yeah like I’m sitting in the

I’m sitting in a what I would do is I would catch the ball with my back to the basket and I would jump in the air and shoot it literally like if the basket’s there I would be facing that way in Arena and then the

Guy would be right there and he throw me the ball right here and as he’s throwing it I would jump and shoot in there you start to understand where your your relationship is to you in the basket and it’s a very like Advanced way to think about shooting because now you’re so

Comfortable with turning left shoulder turning right shoulder and I’ll tell you another thing that’s super important cuz I was telling my son this because we were playing oneon-one the other day and I was on a bad hit but I was just kind of messing around with them

And every time he would go to shoot the ball like he had to go from here to up here and I said so now when you start to get in Evolved shooting now you have to know how to replace the ball cuz if you got a good defender on you with the ball

In front of you can you bring the ball over here and then get to here can you bring the ball from here and then get to here because everybody’s comfort zone is to come up from right here so now you got to be able to catch the ball of here

And then go right to here real fast on that shot if I remember correctly did you bring it from your left um no I brought it from right here you brought it from leftow okay yeah because came he he got it to me like right here and then I came down with it

Okay you know so it’s even like a blur to me because it feels like it happened in slow motion that played it yeah I mean I I watched the ball even as I think about now I watched the ball and it it just kind of

It was like a real movie it happened in slow motion and I swear it didn’t feel like I did anything with it it didn’t feel like it was going to make it to the rim um it just it just kind of as I think about it just kind of floated

Right there and then all a sudden it was just like and so you didn’t feel like when you shot it because we know as Shooters we know we know a perfect shot we know a shot’s going in yeah no you didn’t feel that nope I had no feeling whatsoever and it

It was just I can only equate it to just the work that I put in my body knew it was like it was like I was in a position where my body just said I we got this we got this we we’ve been here we’ll we’ll

We’ll we’ll take over from here and you know it it was like that one shot like as many gamewinners as I’ve hit over my career it seemed like you just set up for that one shot and then that’s it everything built for that moment but it’s the it’s the worst anxiety you can

Imagine uh because even even you know when you’re it got to a point where you know I’m shooting 90 plus% from the free throw line too so now I’m in a position that whenever the game is on line it’s a two-point game everybody’s like funing the ball towards me so all this

Anxiety around shooting making free throws being able to come through in the clutch I was like this you know I don’t want to be in fortunate for for me and you had a little more to me you know social media there’s such a Crux of pressure that kind of comes down on

Players like when you don’t perform well like people right on your timeline you know right at you you know um and I didn’t have to deal with that but you always worried about being able to perform in those situations that’s why I was like I just

I can’t sit and rest thinking this is going to solve itself like I got to be able to push myself and and and be in the situation that’s why it wasn’t about success for me it wasn’t about somebody saying that I was good it was about me

Being able to come through in a moment when most people don’t want that smoke

We’re so excited to have NBA legend Ray Allen on ‘The Old Man and the Three’ this week! To preview this incredible episode, Ray explains everything that went into hitting his famous Game 6 three pointer on the Miami Heat against the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals. It’s fascinating.

Subscribe to The Old Man and The Three podcast w/ JJ Redick (ESPN / First Take) and Tommy Alter YouTube channel today for more NBA analysis, player interviews and highlights.