Ray Allen Takes Good With Bad
How would you like to be Ray Allen for a day? Well, you probably would, right? We're talking about a rich athlete, one of the best basketball players on the planet and highly regarded as a person, too.
That's got to be nice, right? But there's another side to being Ray Allen that's not so nice.
Would you want to be asked to leave a local fitness center even though you didn't do anything wrong? Want the cops rapping on your car window with a billy club that nearly smashed the thing because you didn't move the car fast enough, then get patted down? Or some hothead trying to challenge you because his sister wants to meet you?
That has all happened to Allen. Oh yeah, there's a price to be paid for being well-paid and famous. Allen isn't looking for sympathy but, "This is stuff that people don't know about, and we don't talk about it."
He talked about it Monday, fresh off an incident that he said left him feeling disrespected as a human being.
Allen was given a guest pass to work out at WOW Fitness in Cromwell a few weeks ago and said he was given the OK to continue working out for free. Allen said he offered to pay for a membership several times but was told it wasn't necessary. He had been there about eight times and one employee approached him about possibly linking up with the owner for a business deal that could bring more members to the club.
Good move. It was something Ray said he didn't commit to, but was open to, because as a longtime community-oriented guy he envisioned new Celtics teammates Kevin Garnett and Glen "Big Baby" Davis along with Paul Pierce working out with him at times in the state.
Allen had ended his workout and was sitting down having his customary protein shake when he noticed a man he assumed was the owner - Lou Soteriou - having a back-and-forth with employees.
The owner requested a word with Allen shortly afterward.
"I got up and walked back there and when I walked around the corner he was standing there waiting for me with this look of disgust on his face like I stole some money from him," Allen said. "I extended my hand to him to say, `How ya doin'. I'm Ray. Nice to meet you.' And he just had his hand on his hip. He didn't even offer to shake my hand. `Did I do something to offend you?' because I wasn't trying to take any money from him. I didn't take any money from him. So he goes on this rant about who gave you a pass to come in here. So I said, `One of your employees gave me the pass. I'm a guest.
"He said, `Why don't you just buy a membership like everybody else? I have a business here to run. I don't give any free handouts. I have a business to run here.' ... He was yelling at me like I was one of his kids or something, but once he said that he walked out the office, just walked away from me. I said, `I'll never come in your gym again.' He was like, `Don't come back.'"
Reached Tuesday, Soteriou said, "Sir, there's no comment. Talk to my attorney. Thank you."
Sure, some will say Allen should have just paid for the membership. Allen did say he repeatedly told employees he had no problem paying for a membership.
Maybe some other fitness club will seek Allen out for a deal, because think of the business possibilities, photo ops and autographs.
Allen, honored by the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce recently, wants to be a part of Middlesex County. His fiancee, Shannon, is from there, and his future mother-in-law runs a realty business there.
Allen probably would not have talked so much about the bad side of being famous had it not been fresh in his mind.
Like most famous athletes, he is used to people trying to confront him. That's why if he does go out to have a good time, he has security with him. That was a good thing during a golf trip to Mexico with a bunch of his closest friends while he was playing in Seattle.
Allen said he was at a bar and a girl from Alaska approached him, wanted to meet him and said her friend did, too. But as he stood and walked to meet the girl, her brother got in the way, slinging expletives Allen's way.
"I said, `What's that all about?'" Allen said. "My boys heard it. I had my assistant with me and I actually have security and they were saying, `Just calm down, man. It's not that serious. Your sister wants to meet him,' but the guy just wouldn't back down. I knew they were drinking and that almost erupted into a fight where they started pushing and I was just standing there and I said, `Hey, man, it's not that serious.' I said to him, `Buddy, you don't want to fight. You don't want to fight.' And he's hatin' because I'm sitting here and his sister wants to meet me and for some reason, I guess he was envious. I don't know."
Perhaps Allen's first glimpse of the darker side of fame came at UConn. He was at a club in Hartford.
"I was on the curb and I was sitting there and I was getting ready to leave and the cop walks up to the car and said, `You have to move your vehicle,'" Allen said. "I was in the middle of a conversation with a friend of mine on the street and the cop said move the vehicle now, and I said, `We're moving. I'm just finishing up my conversation.' And as I'm about to put the car in drive he takes his billy club and smacks it on my back window. Thump! Thump! Hard, like to the point where it could break."
Allen said the officer knew who he was. Allen and his friends got out of the car to ask what was up and he then got patted down.
Nobody's nominating Ray Allen for sainthood here, but this is a good dude. You know how character-conscious the NBA and commissioner David Stern are, and he always speaks highly of Allen. Allen wants to be a part of the community and seemingly adheres to the philosophy that to whom much is given, much is expected. He's set for life financially and has been active in charitable causes in his years as an NBA player. None of that will change, and many of us might trade places with him, but this is a reminder that sometimes it isn't easy being famous. There's no place to hide.
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