|
Review content:
Ray Allen Takes Good With Bad \r
\r
\r
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.\r
\r
That's got to be nice, right? But there's another side to being Ray Allen that's not so nice.\r
\r
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?\r
\r
\r
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.""\r
\r
He talked about it Monday, fresh off an incident that he said left him feeling disrespected as a human being.\r
\r
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.\r
\r
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.\r
\r
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.\r
\r
The owner requested a word with Allen shortly afterward.\r
\r
""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.\r
\r
""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.'""\r
\r
Reached Tuesday, Soteriou said, ""Sir, there's no comment. Talk to my attorney. Thank you.""\r
\r
|