Allen Ray - From the outside: my journey through life and the game i love

No one could save us now.

The three-pointer LeBron James missed with 10 seconds to go meant that, barring a miracle, the San Antonio Spurs only had to secure one final rebound to be the champions, while the Miami Heat, the team I was on, with the Big Three of LeBron, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh, would lose in the NBA Finals for the second time in three years.

The writers would soon be swarming all over us like vultures. This is what happens when you say that you will capture one championship after anothernot two, not three, not four..., LeBron said when he joined the Heat in 2010and then dont.

The fans in South Beach wouldnt be any more forgiving. Many, as a matter of fact, had headed for the exits on that June evening in 2013, which pissed my teammates and me off big-time. We busted our butts, night after night, during the grueling 82-game season, and two months of playoffs, and the team had given the city a title the year before.

Others figured the game was over as well. The yellow rope that would seal an area for Commissioner David Stern to award the Larry OBrien Championship Trophy had already been placed around the perimeter of the court. Only the identity of the series MVP was yet to come.

The Spurs were having their way with usthat much was obviousgrabbing a five-point lead with 28.2 seconds to go.

We were always nervous facing them; no team in the NBA was more efficient. Every player had the potential to hit the three or break his man off the dribble. The magic word was trust. Their coach, Gregg Popovich, trusted his guys. A lot of coaches dont. They leave their players in the same limited roles, from game 1 to game 82. How do you get better if youre not given larger responsibilities? How do you become more valuable to the team?

At the same time, we were making it easier for the Spurs, with turnovers in three straight possessions, two from LeBron! After the third one, and a foul from me that sent Manu Ginobili to the line for two free throwsgood thing he made just oneour coach, Erik Spoelstra, called time.

Its not supposed to go down like this, said Norris Cole, one of our backups. No, Norris, it isnt.

Yet there was no despair in the huddle, and I had been in huddles where players bitched at one another so loudly you could not hear a word the coach was saying. Glancing at the faces, and the body language, I could tell everyone still believed. Without that, you dont stand a chance.

When play resumed, Mike Miller, our veteran guard, inbounded to LeBron, who missed a three from the wing, but Mike secured the loose ball and threw it back to him. LeBron made this one. The lead was cut to two. The Spurs Kawhi Leonard was then fouled with 19.4 seconds left, but fortunately, he also made only one of his two free throws.

Spurs 95, Heat 92.

Anything could still happen. This is a sport where the ball can take some strange bounces, and Id seen my share since I joined the league in 1996. Bounces that almost made you believe there were other forces at work.

Besides, we had one clear advantage during those waning seconds. We had Chris Bosh.

At six-foot-eleven, CB, as we called him, was the tallest player on the floor. Thats because Tim Duncan, the face of the San Antonio franchise, was on the bench. Popovich had replaced him with another big, Boris Diaw, for quickness to chase us on the perimeter in a pick-and-roll, a smart move by a smart coach.

Lo and behold, when LeBron missed a three, CB grabbed a rebound Duncan might have gotten. Nine seconds to go.

Of course, we still needed the three ball. Desperately. From someone. Anyone.

I wanted that someone to be me. As a kid, I played out these exact types of late-game scenarios over and over in my head when I was on the court, alone with the ball, and in my dreams:

Five seconds to go and the ball goes to Allen, his team down by one. He dribbles to the free-throw line, gets by his man. He takes a jumper. Its good! Its good! The crowd goes wild. Ray Allen is carried off by his teammates as they win the NBA title.

I wasnt different, I suppose, from any kid growing up in the 1980s who loved basketball and wanted to be like Michael Jordan. I knew it when I was 14 and saw him on television for the first time in a game against the New York Knicks. How he ran up and down the floor and soared over everyone in his path. I thought to myself: I want to float in the air the way he does!

Only, much to my surprise, first in college, and then in the NBA, I found out that a lot of players, even the best players, dont necessarily relish the opportunity to be like Mike, not when it matters most.

Sure, they are fearless for most of the gametalking trash, making shots from every conceivable anglebut when it comes down to the precious few seconds when legends are made, they are nowhere to be found. They fear they will always be known as the guy who missed the big shot at the end. Get them the ball, and even if they have a good look at the basket, they get rid of it so fast your head will spin.

I approached these situations from the opposite viewpoint: I imagined the rewards that would come if I were to make the big shot. And, God forbid, if I were to miss, at least I would have proven I had the courage to take it and put my reputation on the line. Thats 50 percent of the battle, if not more.

To be fair, quite a few embrace the chance to be the hero. Except they too often take the wrong shot, the shot the defender wants them to takemaybe a fadeaway or an off-balanced runnerinstead of the one theyd want, the one more suited to their particular skills.

And to be ready for the challenge isnt some complicated mystery. It requires what success has always required:

Commitment. Day after day. Year after year.

The second I saw the ball in CBs hands, there was only one place for me to go: behind the three-point line.

Which meant backpedaling three steps, maybe four, toward the right corner of the court. Granted, it wasnt the most ideal way to get in rhythm, but for as long as I could remember, in gyms from one end of the country to the other, I had prepared for this very moment.