So yesterday we touched on the Ray Allen Jumpman commercial that's been making the rounds on the Televisiontubes. It's part of a campaign that revolves around very specific moments in the history of college basketball and how they still haunt rival fans to this day.
For instance, there's the Illinois police officer who gives the North Carolina driver a ticket because he's still not over UNC's win in the NCAA finals a few years back. And there's the Texas fan who can't celebrate his daughter's birthday because it falls on the same day as when Carmelo led the Orange past UT in the Final Four.
Very specific, very salient moments in time that still haunt basketball fanatics. So that's what's weird about the Ray Allen one. Watch it again:
When was that? I'm a die-hard Syracuse fan and I couldn't even tell you what magical game that was. You know why? Because it never happened. Ray Allen needed to be shoehorned into one of these commercials because he's a Jordan guy and the best they could do was make up a fake moment in time when Ray Allen put a dagger in the heart of Syracuse fans that still haunts them to this day.
I tried looking for Ray Allen game stats from his college days to see if I could identify a specific amazing performance against SU but I couldn't find them. I never saw any reference to an amazing game in his bios anywhere. As far as I can tell, he never did anything remotely amazing against Syracuse at any given time. I'm sure he had good games, but nothing that continually drive the dagger into SU fans like Keith Smart's shot or John Thompson's antics.
Oh and then there's this:
Check out the scorebox. What arbitrary network without a logo is that supposed to be?
Based on the score and the fact that #44 John Wallace is in the commercial, I think this is supposed to be the March 8th, 1996 Big East Tournament Semis which UConn won 85-67. If that's the case, this commercial should have been about how there's no one named Khalid working at Syracuse Manufacturing. El-Amin was the hero that night and named Tournament MVP. (Not to mention the fact that SU, not UConn, went on to the Final Four that season)
If anything, that commercial should have been about how the employees of Georgetown Manufacturing are still bitter. Allen's shining moment in the Big East Tournament that year came the following night when UConn played the Hoyas for the Big East title.
In one of the most thrilling finishes in the history of the tournament, UConn won its second conference title with a 75-74 victory over Georgetown. In the final four minutes, the Huskies went on a 10-0 run after trailing by 11. With 13 seconds left, Ray Allen hit a running floater to give UConn the lead -- for good. Guarded by none other than Allen Iverson, Allen's game-winning bucket was the only field goal he made in the second half.
Admit it, Nike. You were made about the bad press you got over the Ernie Davis statue and this was your way of taking it out on us. Jerks.
Update: My bad on the El-Amin game. Obviously that was incorrect. But here's the actual game. Ray Allen did indeed have a good game. But memorable? The kind of performance Syracuse fans never forget? The SU fan who sent this to me even said he had to go digging just to find it. Memorable my ass.