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Ray Allen says Sam Cassell is one of his favorite teammates of all time
Ray Allen’s highly-decorated career spanned 18 seasons. This meant he was around a whole lot of players across four different teams. However, he pointed to one particular teammate he’s quite fond of, and this was during his time with the Milwaukee Bucks—boisterous point guard Sam Cassell.
Positive energy
Allen and Cassell were teammates for five seasons in Milwaukee, helping to uplift the franchise to new heights, especially during the 2000-2001 season when the team made it all the way to the Eastern Conference finals. However, they fell a game short of making it to the NBA Finals, as Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers vanquished them in Game 7.
Allen, though, had the time of his life playing with the confident guard, saying he relished going to battle with Cassell, as he always brought the right mindset and positive energy wherever he went—whether it was a crucial Playoff game or just a regular season tiff.
"Sam was a guy you wanted to go to battle with. He wouldn’t quit on you and do whatever he could. He never wore bad body language,” said Allen.
LeBron James
LeBron is another player Allen mentioned he enjoyed spending time with. Though the two greats played together for just two seasons, their partnership bore fruit in the form of an NBA title in 2013. Allen explained that in as much a megastar LeBron is in the sporting world, he never made a fuss about it, especially amongst his teammates.
“LeBron is a guy who you’ll have fun with, he’ll compete with you, but he is always one of the guys. He never made himself bigger than the next man,” shared Allen.
Allen’s time with the Heat also produced his most iconic moment—the stepback game-tying triple in Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs. Down three with just seconds to go, Heat big man Chris Bosh found Allen free in the corner, and the rest is history.
