Rick Barry Says Ray Allen Travelled on NBA Finals Game 6 Three-Pointer

Ray Allen saved the Miami Heat from certain death in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, reaching back and knocking in a monster baseline three to force overtime against the San Antonio Spurs. According to the always opinionated Hall of Famer Rick Barry, Allen’s legendary bomb shouldn’t have counted since he supposedly committed a travelling violation when setting his feet behind the line. Per Hot Hot Hoops (via PBT): “What about being more consistent with (LeBron James’) outside shot? What have you noticed about his improvement over the years? RB: ‘It’s just repetition and the fact that he has his elbow in, which I made a big deal about it a number of years ago, that’s improved his shooting form dramatically and it’s one of the reasons why he had the kind of year he had. Go look at film of him from 3 or 4 years ago, look at his elbow and look at it from last season. You’ll notice a dramatic difference. He was never going to be a good shooter, a consistent shooter, with his elbow out. He’s become a more consistent shooter and he needs to keep working on that and make sure that’s good. There’s stuff that he could do off the dribble, as great as he is, there’s nuances that I’ve learned over the years that if he was taught those things – I’ve extended that courtesy to him and I told him I’d be happy to show him some of the things I’ve learned, we’ll see if I hear from him. I’d be happy to convey that to him and try to take his game to a whole different level. That’s the scary part about it, the guy is already unbelievable as it is and the scary part is that he can be even better. You just mentioned that you think Ray Allen travelled on that corner 3 at the end of Game 6… RB: ‘There’s no question about it, just watch the replay that they showed from the overhead camera. He catches the ball with one foot down, steps back, brings the foot that he had down back to shoot the ball. That’s traveling, you can’t move your pivot foot without dribbling.’ Do you think the ref saw that and chose not to interfere with such an important moment of a championship game or did it happen so quickly Allen’s shuffle to that spot looked legit? RB: ‘It happened so quickly that the official just saw Ray doing it and he was looking down probably just to see if he got behind the three-point arc. It was a great shot, but they didn’t call it so it doesn’t matter. They got away with it, so lucky them.'”