Jarrett Allen is one of the best young centers in the NBA. The former Nets center showed us a side of himself we didn’t know – he’s a space enthusiast.
Advertisement
Allen was drafted by the Nets in 2017 with a pick they’d acquired from the Washington Wizards. This move turned out to be one of Sean Mark’s best as a GM, as Allen developed into a capable defender over time.
His weakside help defense, shot-blocking and ability to use his length to contest and alter shots are borderline elite. The Fro Show, as Nets announcer Ian Eagle has christened him, has compiled some great highlights already.
He has blocks on LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Anthony Davis among others. This would be enough for the career highlight reels of most other centers in the NBA today.
But Allen is far from done in his evolution as a player. The 6’11” center will have to develop his offensive toolkit in order to break the ranks of the league’s All-Stars.
“I’m a huge space guy”: Jarrett Allen
Allen revealed more about his nerdy side unprompted in an interview ahead of the Cavs’ game against Denver. In his first interview ever as a Cavs player, Allen had already revealed to us how he’d assembled his first computer.
He gave us another awesome story along the same lines today:
“I’m a huge space guy,” Allen said after shootaround as the Cavs prepared to host the Denver Nuggets at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. “I love just the idea of what they did and how many times they’ve done it successfully.”
“After J.B. said, ‘Bring it in,’ I rushed to the locker room to shower to get home to turn it on to watch every second of it,”
Allen’s geeky side is something that a ton of us can really associate with. The Mars landing is indeed a landmark scientific achievement, as he describes.
