Allen keeps low profile

HOUSTON – It’s a different season for Seattle SuperSonics All-Star Ray Allen, what with the team failing to sustain its winning ways of last season and some folks questioning whether Allen should be in Houston for the league’s annual celebration which culminates with Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game.

It was never more evident than at Friday’s media session for the weekend’s participants, a ballroom gathering of players and newspaper, radio, Internet, magazine and television types all jostling for a moment’s time with the weekend’s most popular celebrities.

But as Kobe Bryant was constantly surrounded by a phalanx of journalists that were six or seven deep, and as reporters clambered to hear what wisecracks flew from Shaquille O’Neal’s mouth, Allen sat across the room at a table that was largely unoccupied. There were questioners, of course; with so many people.

But Allen was not receiving the type of attention and the types of queries he did last season, when the Sonics were the surprise team of the league and Allen its undisputed leader fighting courageously for a new contract.

He said the experience was the same – “We could be in L.A., we could be in Denver, we could be anywhere because the setup is all the same” – but he meant it logistically.

No, there is something missing from a season that has taken the spiral it has for the Sonics, and so Allen is left to search for the highlights.

“Just being able to make the All-Star team is a bright spot for the team in Seattle,” Allen said, “to be able to say they helped me make this team.”

Allen also had some interesting comments about the trade of Vladimir Radmanovic to the Los Angeles Clippers for Chris Wilcox.

“It definitely didn’t help us,” Allen said. “Vlade, when he plays his best basketball, he helps us. I think he got in a situation sometimes where he put so much pressure on himself contractually, not having signed a contract this year and then being in the situation where he didn’t know exactly what he was contributing and how he needed to contribute.

“He was stuck in the mud a little bit, just frustrated and trying to figure out how he was going to contribute. So just having the change of scenery for him will hopefully do him well, and he’ll step up and hopefully get that contract.”