The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Ray Allen to UConn: ‘Make things right’ for Kevin Ollie
CROMWELL — Kevin Ollie was Ray Allen’s point guard at UConn before Allen went on to a Hall of Fame NBA career.
On Thursday, Allen was defending his former teammate, who was fired as UConn’s head coach on March 10 with more than $10 million remaining on his contract.
“Kevin’s situation is a stain on the (UConn) family, on the state,” Allen said, shortly after a keynote speech at the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting at the Red Lion Hotel. “For the most part, everybody I know who went to UConn, we have great pride in the university. It’s an isolated incident that needs to be resolved. Both parties need to come to terms to make the situation go away. We know who Kevin is and what he’s done for the state, and they need to make it right by him.”
Allen believes Ollie and UConn will come to a resolution in the fight over the money left on Ollie’s contract, which the school doesn’t believe it owes him since he was fired for “just cause.” But both sides must come to a compromise.
“Like anything, it requires both sides to make concessions,” said Allen, on a day that was proclaimed ‘Ray Allen Day’ by Gov. Dannel Malloy. “At the end of the day, regardless of where people stand, when you strike a deal, nobody likes a deal you end up with. But if it’s good for both parties, that’s what you look for.”
Allen, who said he will play in the Jim Calhoun Charity Classic basketball
game on Aug. 10 at Mohegan Sun Casino, doesn’t believe there is any great fissure in the UConn family. But he fervently defended his former teammate.
“This guy was my leader, my point guard, he set the standard for me,” said Allen. “We need to make it right by him and move this thing forward.”
“I don’t believe Kevin did anything wrong that was detrimental to the university. Everybody knows who he is, what his intentions are. Based on that, let’s figure it out and move forward.”
Allen said he’s had conversations with both Ollie and UConn.
“I’m on both sides. I’m kind of in the middle, which is a weird place to be,” he noted. “But, I believe both parties want the same things moving forward, and that’s what we’ve got to focus on. I’m not a finger-pointer, I’m a solution-finder. Let’s figure out how to turn the page and start building, like we’ve been doing. We have a new coach now, and we have to support him and make sure he has everything he needs to go forward and make sure our brand is strong and win games in all sports.”
Allen will be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on Sept. 7. He hasn’t yet decided who will induct him into the Hall, but said he’s not too anxious about the day.
“I always thought you had to be this old grandpa to be a Hall-of-Famer,” Allen, 43, said with a smile. “It doesn’t seem so outsideof-the-box, because I thought it was something that happens so further down the line.”
During his speech to a packed audience of local businesspeople, Allen said he’s felt like a Connecticut native ever since he committed to UConn on Oct. 21, 1992.
“Sometimes I feel like saying, ‘Yeah, I was born in New Britain Hospital,’ ” quipped Allen, a military child who was born in California and lived in England, Germany and Oklahoma before attending high school in South Carolina.
Allen has lived in the state for over 20 years. He recently opened a healthfood restaurant in Middletown called Grown.
Of the documents he received for Aug. 2 being decreed ‘Ray Allen Day’ in both Connecticut and in Middletown, Allen joked: “I have to keep them in my car, in case I get pulled over.”
In his speech to the packed audience on Thursday, he told stories of his time playing with LeBron James in Miami, particularly when he hit three gametying free throws at the buzzer to send a game into overtime. Afterwards, Allen signed copies of his new memoir, “From the Outside.”
He will play with his former teammates and fellow UConn alums on Aug. 10 in Calhoun’s bienneial charity game. Ollie isn’t expected to be there, but Allen’s former point guard and teammate is obviously very much on his mind these days.