Despite missing the entire 2014-15 season, Ray Allen isn’t going to hang ’em up just yet.
The former Boston Celtic turned 40 last month, but he’s still open to the possibility of playing in the NBA again if the right deal comes along. Allen told the Hartford Courant as much at his basketball camp Saturday in Connecticut.
“I haven’t said anything about that, and I won’t officially retire,” Allen said, per CBSSports.com. “Because if something came to the table, contractually and situationally, I want to be able to take a strong look at it. I don’t want to be that guy that says he’s retiring and then is coming back.”
Allen said he keeps himself in playing shape, but it doesn’t seem as though the 10-time All-Star would be too heartbroken if he didn’t get many calls next season.
“I didn’t miss it,” Allen told the Courant. “I realized how much time I missed not being home with my kids. I probably missed it in the Finals. Watching Cleveland and Golden State play, it just seemed like an epic battle that required a lot of precision on the floor, and that’s when I felt, that was probably the only time that I felt like, ‘Man, I should have been out there.'”
Still, after collecting NBA championships with the Celtics and the Miami Heat, Allen doesn’t have anything to feel bad about when he finally does call it quits.
“It would be one thing if I played 10 or 11 years,” Allen said “But playing 18, I got a lot out of it. I like the feeling of knowing I don’t have to beat myself into the ground.”
Thumbnail photo via Shanna Lockwood/USA TODAY Sports Images