In March 2017, I caught up with actor and activist Hill Harper on Scoop B Radio to discuss his role in the 1998 Spike Lee classic He Got Game. While the film is legendary for the father-son dynamic between Denzel Washington and Ray Allen (as Jesus Shuttlesworth), Harper—who played the flamboyant cousin Coleman “Booger” Sykes—gave me a “buttoned-up” look at what happened when the cameras weren’t rolling.
Reflecting on this in 2025, Harper’s observations about a young Ray Allen provide the perfect prologue to the career of the man who would retire as one of the greatest shooters in NBA history.
“He Had a Work Ethic”
At the time of filming, Ray Allen was just a budding star for the Milwaukee Bucks, not yet the “Sugar Ray” of the Celtics or the Heat. Harper recalled being struck by the fact that Allen didn’t treat the movie like a Hollywood vacation; he treated it like a training camp.
“Ray was incredible,” Hill Harper told me in 2017. “He had a work ethic that was just beyond. We would be on set for twelve, fourteen hours, and the first thing Ray would do when we wrapped was go to a gym. He was constantly working on his form, constantly shooting.”
Harper noted that even though Allen was playing a fictional character, he refused to let his real-world game slip. This discipline is what eventually led Allen to two NBA championships and the all-time three-point record (at the time of his retirement).
The Spike Lee “Reality” Check
Harper also touched on Spike Lee’s insistence on authenticity. Spike didn’t want a “movie version” of basketball; he wanted the grime and the grind. Harper credited Ray Allen’s professionalism for setting the tone for the rest of the cast.
“When you see Ray on screen, that’s not CGI. He’s really that good,” Harper remarked. “But what people didn’t see was the repetition. He was a machine even back then.”
The 2025 Retrospective: The Blueprint for Success
Today, as we watch the “three-point revolution” continue to dominate the NBA, Hill Harper’s 2017 session on Scoop B Radio reminds us that the greats aren’t born—they are built. Ray Allen’s “Shuttlesworth” persona was iconic, but it was his work ethic that was truly legendary.
| Film Fact | Detail |
| Movie | He Got Game (1998) |
| Director | Spike Lee |
| Ray Allen’s Character | Jesus Shuttlesworth |
| Hill Harper’s Character | Coleman “Booger” Sykes |
| Ray’s Routine | 14-hour shoot days followed by gym sessions. |
As Hill Harper told me:
“You could tell he was going to be one of the greatest. He just had that focus.”
In 2025, that focus remains the gold standard for every “key one” (like De’Aaron Fox in San Antonio) entering the league.
