Early career

Allen played at Chicago's Crane High School, where he was a basketball standout. At Crane, Allen played alongside future Celtics prospect Will Bynum. A 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m), 213 lb (97 kg; 15.2 st) shooting guard, Allen spent his freshman year (2000-01) playing for Butler County College in El Dorado, Kansas, where he averaged 16.5 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.8 steals, going on to being named Jayhawk West Conference Freshman of the Year. During his sophomore year (2001-02) at Wabash Valley College in Mount Carmel, Illinois, he led his team to 32-6 overall record and fourth place at the NJCAA championships.

For his final two college seasons (2002-2004), Allen transferred to Oklahoma State University (OSU), where he was named the national junior-college transfer of the year by collegeinsider.com, and cited by college basketball commentator Dick Vitale as one of the top three junior college transfers during his junior season. He was named the Big 12 Player of the Year his senior year, after averaging 16 points per game and leading the Cowboys to the Final Four. Allen became the first player in OSU history to score 1,000 career points in two seasons. He graduated from Oklahoma State with a degree in education.

Professional career

Boston Celtics (2004-2010)

Allen was selected by the Boston Celtics with the 25th overall pick of the 2004 NBA draft. In his rookie season in 2004-05 he averaged 6.4 points and 2.9 rebounds per game, and ranked 3rd in the league in steals per 48 minutes, with 2.89. He was selected to play for the rookies in the Rookie Challenge during All-Star Weekend, along with fellow Celtic Al Jefferson.

Shooting incident

During the 2005 off-season, Allen was charged with aggravated battery stemming from an altercation that escalated into the non-fatal shooting of a 29-year-old man outside a restaurant in Chicago in August 2005. Although he was not a suspect in the shooting, Allen was accused of breaking another man's left eye socket. He spent two nights in jail, but was not implicated in the shooting. Due to this incident and a severe right knee injury that Allen had suffered prior to the shooting, Allen missed much of the first half of the 2005-06 season. On April 24, 2007, Allen was found not guilty by a Chicago court.

Knee injury

On January 10, 2007, in a Celtics loss to the Indiana Pacers, Allen suffered a debilitating knee injury as he landed awkwardly following an uncontested slam dunk attempt, tearing both the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and medial collateral ligament (MCL). Allen underwent a successful ACL reconstructive surgery on January 13 at New England Baptist Hospital and was sidelined for the rest of the season. He was averaging 11.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.48 steals in 33 games. He made a quick return to the court for his type of knee injury only nine months later during the following preseason, even though not at full strength. However, the explosiveness he displayed prior to the injury has since been noted as "sorely lacking".

2008-2009

On July 23, 2008, Allen re-signed with the Celtics on a 2-year, $5 million contract.

Memphis Grizzlies (2010-present)

2010-11

In July 2010, Allen signed a three-year, $9.7 million contract with the Memphis Grizzlies. He later reflected on his final seasons in Boston by saying that he felt he was 'overshadowed', in particular, by veterans Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.

On February 8, Allen was inserted into the starting lineup in a game against Oklahoma City, in place of an injured Rudy Gay and suspended O.J. Mayo. Allen produced 27 points, five steals and three blocks while spending most of the contest guarding Kevin Durant. In a postgame interview, he coined the phrase "Grit. Grind." that became part of Memphis' team identity going forward.

He was named to the 2011 NBA All-Defensive 2nd Team for his efforts that season after averaging 1.79 steals per game, good for 5th in the NBA, mostly off the bench. He led the league in steals-per-48-minutes at 4.14, more than one steal higher than second-placed Chris Paul.

2011-12

Due to the 2011 NBA lockout, the 2011-12 NBA season was reduced from its normal 82 games to 66 games. In the 2011-12 NBA GM survey, Allen was ranked the "Best Perimeter Defender". He was the Grizzlies' starting shooting guard, averaging 9.8 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 1.8 spg, 1.4 apg in 26.3 mpg. He was named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team for the first time in his career. The Grizzlies finished 41-25 and clinched the fourth seed in the Western Conference and made the playoffs for the second year in a row. However, the Grizzlies were defeated by the Los Angeles Clippers in a full seven game series in the opening round of the playoffs.

2012-13

In the 2012-13 season, Allen received 53 points to make the NBA All-Defensive First Team for the second time in a row.

2013-14

On July 15, 2013, Allen re-signed with the Grizzlies to a multi-year deal. The Grizzlies had a season of ups-and-downs as the new coach Dave Joerger, who was appointed in June 2013, had to deal with numerous player injuries. Eventually, the Grizzlies went on to finish the season with 50 wins, which was good for seed number 7 in the West. They lost in the first round to the Oklahoma City Thunder in a seven-game, highly competitive series (four matches ended in overtime). Allen was a huge part of the gritty Grizzlies team, as he received huge credit for drastically limiting Kevin Durant's productivity thereby making the series more even.

2015-16

On March 22, 2016, Allen scored 27 points on 12-12 shooting, the most shots made without a miss that season, in a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Personal life

Allen was born to Ella Allen, and he has two sisters, Ebony and Dominique, and a brother, Ryan, who played college basketball for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

His Celtics teammates called him "Gucci". With the Grizzlies, he earned the nickname "Grindfather".

NBA career statistics

Legend
GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field goal percentage	3P%	3-point field goal percentage	FT%	Free throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game	Bold	Career high

†	Denotes season in which Allen won an NBA Championship

Regular season

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2004-05	Boston	77	34	16.4	.475	.387	.737	2.9	.8	1.0	.3	6.4
2005-06	Boston	51	9	19.2	.471	.324	.746	2.2	1.3	1.0	.4	7.2
2006-07	Boston	33	18	24.4	.514	.242	.784	3.8	1.7	1.5	.4	11.5
2007-08†	Boston	75	11	18.3	.434	.316	.762	2.2	1.5	.8	.3	6.6
2008-09	Boston	46	2	19.3	.482	.222	.725	2.3	1.4	1.2	.5	7.8
2009-10	Boston	54	8	16.5	.510	.000	.605	2.7	1.3	1.1	.4	6.1
2010-11	Memphis	72	31	20.8	.510	.174	.753	2.7	1.4	1.8	.6	8.9
2011-12	Memphis	58	57	26.3	.469	.308	.800	4.0	1.4	1.8	.6	9.8
2012-13	Memphis	79	79	26.7	.445	.125	.717	4.6	1.2	1.5	.6	8.9
2013-14	Memphis	55	28	23.2	.494	.234	.628	3.8	1.7	1.6	.3	9.0
2014-15	Memphis	63	41	26.2	.495	.345	.627	4.4	1.4	2.0	.5	8.6
2015-16	Memphis	64	57	25.3	.458	.357	.652	4.6	1.1	1.7	.3	8.4
Career		727	375	21.8	.477	.280	.718	3.4	1.3	1.4	.4	8.1

Playoffs

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2005	Boston	7	3	12.9	.444	.000	.429	1.7	.3	.4	.3	2.7
2008†	Boston	15	0	4.3	.563	.000	.400	.2	.2	.1	.0	1.3
2009	Boston	10	0	6.0	.500	.000	1.000	.9	.3	.2	.0	.9
2010	Boston	24	0	16.3	.480	.000	.778	1.7	.7	1.0	.6	5.1
2011	Memphis	13	13	26.9	.426	.143	.659	2.9	1.5	1.9	.4	8.8
2012	Memphis	7	7	24.3	.400	.000	.706	3.1	.7	1.3	1.0	6.9
2013	Memphis	15	15	28.1	.432	.250	.759	6.1	1.8	2.0	.3	10.3
2014	Memphis	7	1	32.9	.486	.000	.762	7.7	1.3	1.7	.1	12.3
2015	Memphis	10	9	27.9	.491	.143	.750	5.2	1.5	2.4	1.1	6.6
2016	Memphis	4	2	23.5	.303	.143	.692	2.8	.8	1.3	.5	7.5
Career		112	50	19.2	.447	.106	.716	3.0	.9	1.2	.4	6.0

[ Source: Wikipedia ]