It’s hardly a secret that Grayson Allen was not the most well-liked guy in college basketball these past four years when he was at Duke University.
For better or worse, the shooting guard’s edge — many times to a ridiculous degree — earned him a pretty ugly reputation, and certainly that will come into question as he prepares for the NBA Draft.
That said, it is something that he is well aware of and ready to face when necessary, and he had to do just that Friday following a workout for the Boston Celtics.
Allen shed light on how teams so far have approached the conversation surrounding his antics.
“Every single team so far has just looked at it as competitiveness,” Allen told reporters, via The Boston Globe. “I mean, nobody has, like, scolded me for it or anything like that.
“I obviously have to talk about it and talk through it and say where it comes from and what I’m doing to improve my emotions on the court and stuff like that.
“But at the end of the day, I’m not getting rid of that, because teams want an emotional and competitive guy out there. You just have to control it, but they want a guy who will bring fire.”
The final clause about bringing fire is an interesting one, especially as it pertains to the Celtics and Boston as a whole. Be it Brad Marchand or Marcus Smart, even Marcus Morris to a degree, Boston fans have tended to fall in love with players who bring that edge, even if it may cross the line on occasion.
Allen also added that he likes to keep his outside life private, which is why he isn’t shocked people don’t often think the best of him.
“I’d rather have most of my life private,” Allen said. “So, what you do see in me is on the court, and on the court, I am competitive. I’m an irritant to the other team. Emotional. Fired up. And so that’s what people see, and that’s what they judge off of. So, I guess that’s pretty fair, because that’s all they know.”
While it is uncertain how the 22-year-old’s game will translate to the NBA, he had his share of impressive moments in college. Currently, he projects as a late first-round or early second-round selection.
