Ray Allen Takes Good With Bad -- Courant.com

Might I remind you that when Ray Allen was traded to Seattle, he wrote a long letter to the Sonic fans introducing himself to the city. He's such a great guy and has done more than most other athletes. Its unfortunate that he got treated that way by the gym owner and obviously somebody needs to be fired bc there was miscommunication from employee to owner. If anybody knows anything about Ray Allen, you'd know that (due to his military family background, he's moved around a lot all of his life) wherever he has been, he has been a modest star who has left a positive imprint on the community. So to Mr Allen, good luck on this upcoming year & I wish you the best.

darn

Man .. I've always felt bad for these athletes at times .. the constant media and public harassment they have to deal with .. but at times you have to realize that comes with the territory .. you have to take the good with the bad .. the good or great in their scenario is that they get paid millions and millions of dollars to do what the love .. how many people can say they're that lucky ?? I'm sure it's probably something like 1 in a million .. So like I said life isn't fair .. that's old news .. but they have to accept it flat out ..

choassup

this article is rediculus. is this the bst story you could produce by the dead line?

Well i have no problem with allen but this article makes me think cause while he played in seattle i heard that when he was asked to play for the national team (usa) he said no cause they wouldn't pay him as if playing for his country wasn't enough.

I lived in CT for 21 years prior to moving to a job in Raleigh, NC. At first I was apprehensive about coming here. Now, I love this place and see a world of difference between here and CT. The city and people here are great! I never knew it would be this way for a black yank moving south.

Lou Soterio, owner of WOW fitness in Cromwell, West Hartford, Middletown, and Glastonbury CT, is a world class A-hole. When you got mommy and daddy's money behind you think you can treat your members, famous or not, any way you want
Ray Allen, when I open my gym you can work out whenever you want!

Interesting what Ray's dealt with...who hasnt? That sounds about the average crap everyone deals with.

Are you kidding me? Have you ran out of real things to write about?

Though many may attest to the fact that they do not view the world through colored lenses, indicating that they are not aware any racial lines, it is an unfortunate fact that race, color, and ignorance is deeply engraved in our society. In this beautiful Puritan state, where the suburbs boast wealth, prosperity, lush green lawns, 2-5 cars in each perfectly paved drive ways, and attractive education systems, the inequalities are evident. Take a five minute detour from these suburbs into the cities, incidentally with five of them being the poorest in the nation, and one is exposed to the root of the disparity of socioeconomic bliss: race and color. Though I absolutely adore Connecticut, there is no denial that such social worms exist, eating away at the core of our society and the rest of the nation. Add the potent ingredient of ignorance and you get a micro situation very similar to what the legendary Ray Allen was exposed to. When will we as a society begin to embrace our diversity as a nation?

On a side note, having had personal contact and almost legal dispute with this unprofessional gym owner myself, he is the epitome one of those social worms I mentioned above. However, he also lacks much common sense and true to his character, confrontation is something he does not handle well and assumes the law is on his side all the time.

Yeah, this is the price of fame. I don't blame the stars for being snobbish sometimes coz of the pressure from the public. I totally sympahtize with Ray. God bless his good heart.

This is why a lot of stars get into trouble. People picking fights with them. About time somebody told the awful truth so that we can know the star's side of the story.

Ct has always been a Klan state. I'm originally from that area and can attest to that. Wait till U get a load of Boston.

Now you know how Bruce Bowen feels when he's playing his game and others try to make him out to be a dirty player.

Wow, this is a wonderful article, a wonderful article about a wonderful athlete, ambassador of the game, and a great man. Im from Seattle, and I am glad he got traded. Maybe the Boston Celtics will give him his due respect the Seattle Sonics did not give. One of my few regrets as a Sonics fan is going to a game Ray Allen was injured and I never got to see him play in person. Boston is getting a wonderful player. Seattle is gonna miss him greatly. Im much happier to see him in a Celtics jersey than a Oklahoma City Sonics jersey. Much Love Ray. Kevin Garnet who?

Ray is one the nicest NBA player...as well as a person. Sad that some people would act like that sorry soteriou guy. Could have be friend a person like ray & could have his business promoted by ray. So Sad, soteriou!

The article of August 15, 2007, Ray Allen Takes the Good with the Bad by Desmond Conner mischaracterizes my interaction with Mr. Allen, and as a consequence requires clarification. At the onset, however, please recognize that there are many notable people among our memberships at WOW Fitness, as well as stay-at-home moms and dads, students, retirees, and many others who have made a personal commitment to an actice, healthy lifestyle. All members of our organization are entitled to courtesy and respect.


My interaction with Mr. Allen arose from a question concerning the issuance of a guest pass which controversed our policy. The employee whose initials appeared on the pass advised me that she had not issued the pass and she was concerned that this may have occured on more than this occasion.


While WOW Fitness does, on occasion, provide guests with a pass for a limited trial period to enable them to become familiar with our facilities, the trial period is not the extended period that was provided to Mr. Allen, and our employee indicated that she did not authorize it. My concern was to address her questions with respect to the issuance of the guest pass; in this case it happened to have been issued to Mr. Allen. Her speculation was that this made by another staff member in her name. My interest was in determining by whom the pass to Mr. Allen was issued and my discussion with him was initiated for this purpose.


Contrary to your report, Mr. Allen did not extend his hand to me; and I can assure you, as common courtesy, I would of course shake a person's hand if extended to me. Your description of our conversation as being anything other than cordial is not accurate.


WOW Fitness has grown to be Connecticut's premier fitness facilities based on our providing facilities with state of the art equipment, an emphasis on cleanliness, and a trained staff with fitness expertise. We value our relationship to our members and to the communities in which we operate. We have donated memberships to area churches and civic organizations. We have made a regular practice of donating our equipment to area high community schools, donations that now total more than $800,000. I, and the staff of WOW Fitness treat each and every one of our members with dignity, courtesy, and respect.


We are surprised that this is not consistent with Mr. Allen's experience in this matter, but I hope this information will provide a better factual context than your article reflected.


Lou Soteriou
President, Work Out World

I bet the name will soon be OOWW, Out of Work World.

That's all very nice Mr Soteriou, but why would someone of Ray Allen's stature and nature bother to tell the press about you if you had, as claimed, treated him respectfully? Surely he's got better things to think about, like whether to pass up a J cos KG's set in the post. Several people here have testified that your character is somewhat dubious, but hey, there's no such thing as bad publicity, right? Oh, and donating to churches is hardly philanthropic- it promotes ignorance, something you seem to specialize in.

Its a shame people act like that, Ray Allen is ONE OF THE FEW NBA players that seems to carry him self in a respectful manner so it almost hurts 2 hear that this young man has 2 go through this. Even my friend that Hates Ray (Cause he broke his favorit players record for 3 pointers) Really respects Ray Allen. With that said Ray you are one of the reasons that we can still say not all wealthy young black men are idiots for that. AND FOR ILL WILL FOREVER BE GREATFUL TO YOU