There is a quote attributed to Aristotle. It is: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” This may be personified in Ray Allen, the shooting guard of the Boston Celtics.

Ray Allen is known for his basketball shot. He has been called a “pure shooter” because of his efficiency and his flawless form. Jackie MacMullan, in an exceptional article for The Boston Globe, chronicles how much effort Ray Allen devotes to making that basketball shot efficient and seemingly effortless:

“Allen is second all-time in 3-pointers, 460 shy of Reggie Miller. He has a chance of surpassing Miller, provided he stays healthy, but if he does, it will not be by divine intervention. It will be the result of years of painstaking preparation.”

link: Routine excellence is Allen’s secret

Ray Allen is an outstanding basketball player. One suspects that, after reading the MacMullan article, Ray Allen would have excelled at whatever he wanted to do. Some may consider it close to an obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), but Aristotle would have understood… perfectly.

Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster: http://flyinghamster.com/

Tags: nba, ray allen, boston celtics, perfection, jackie macmullan, the boston globe, ocd