Storrs, Connecticut (AP) — Twenty-seven years after hitting the last jump in the building, Ray Allen returned to the Gamble Suite Sunday in a cap and gown.
The 47-year-old basketball Hall of Famer sat in the stands with other grad students, under a banner commemorating the retirement of his UConn jersey, then took his place in the parade T.I. o Obtaining a bachelor’s degree in general studies.
The two-time NBA champ was greeted with a standing ovation as his certificate and thumbs up were handed to his family.
“It’s never too late to learn,” Allen told the Hartford Courant. “This day isn’t about me, it’s about the people who helped me along the way to finish this job, to be on this journey of graduating from college.”
Allen, who averaged 19 points over his three seasons at UConn, left school early for the NBA. He began taking classes again during the second half of his 19-year professional career with Milwaukee, Seattle, Boston, and Miami. He said he was serious about finishing his degree during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was one of the best things that ever happened to me,” he said, “because it kept me with a purpose every day, and it kept me with an intention.”
Allen said he was inspired by his children to finish school. This included his daughter Tierra, a former volleyball player at Quinnipiac University who was the first in the family to graduate from college.
“She inspired me because I saw her graduate and now my kids see me graduate,” he told The Courant.
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