Arrive Magazine - January/February 2011

1375 Washington St., West Newton; 617-332-2583 • “You can get everything there—beef ribs, pork ribs, chicken. It’s not all fatty foods. You can get healthy salads with chicken on it, and they change their menu around so they have a lot of specialties. That’s where I like to go most of the time when I’m grabbing something to eat.”

TAKE A WALK

Newberry Street

Boston • “I love walking down Newberry Street, especially when the weather’s nice. There’s a lot of good shopping up and down the street, or you can just sit there and people watch. They have these great restaurants that you can sit outside and eat at, all in this 20-block radius where you’re going to catch every store from side to side.”

TALK TO ANIMALS

New England Aquarium

1 Central Wharf, Boston;

617-973-5200 • Allen says this 41-year-old facility is his favorite family attraction in Boston. “The kids always enjoy going there because they really like the penguins,” he says, while adults can appreciate the IMAX theater, educational exhibits and focus on wildlife conservation and research.

The best places to ...

Why I Love ...

Boston

Nine-time NBA All-Star Ray Allen may not have started his basketball career in Boston, but in his four seasons with the team, he’s proven one of its most valuable players, working alongside Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to create the strongest Celtics team since the Larry Bird era.

Like Garnett, Allen was brought to Boston in

2007 in a series of trades engineered by Celtics GM Danny Ainge to return the franchise to its former glory. The o;season moves paid o;: The team’s league-leading 66-16 record marked the biggest single-season turnaround in NBA history (they won only 24 games the previous season), and Allen played a major role in their victory over the L. A. Lakers in the Finals, shooting a record-breaking 22 3-pointers to give the Celtics their first NBA Championship in 22 years. Now, after signing a two-year deal last summer worth

$20 million, Allen is looking forward to another shot at making the NBA Finals this season.

“I think winning the championship is always the goal,” Allen says. “But it’s a long process, and you don’t want to get too far ahead of yourself.

Ray Allen’s NBA career
has taken him all over the
country, but his Beantown
fans are the best

You have to use each
moment to get better, and
when adversity strikes
you just learn from it.”
Allen, who had never
made it to the NBA Finals
before coming to Boston, admits that being on
a perennially successful team has its ups and
downs. On the positive side, Celtics fans are
notoriously passionate about their team and
winning has its own rewards. On the negative,
making it to the NBA Finals two out of the last
three years brings with it a certain burden of
expectations.

“The stress levels go a lot higher because
you focus more and pay attention to the small
things,” he confesses. “I’ve always said it was eas-
ier on bad teams because you’re done in April and
you can go on vacation. It’s a lot more stressful
when you’re on a team where you know you have
the ability to go deep into the playo;s.”
That stress is likely to increase as the cur-
rent season wears on: Kobe Bryant and the
Lakers have their eyes on a three-peat as NBA
Champions, while the LeBron James-led Miami
Heat are applying more pressure than ever in
the Eastern Conference. But Allen insists the
Celtics are focusing on themselves rather than
external factors. “We’re focusing on trying to
be a great execution team,” he insists, “working
together defensively and understanding the
solid five-man unit, because that’s going to be
our strength. There’s a lot of teams out there
that are good, but we’re focusing on ourselves.
Our rules don’t change.”