When Milwaukee Bucks guard and three-point ace Grayson Allen was sized for his wedding ring over the summer, he encountered a Size 16 problem.
For the last year and a half he’d been playing with a dislocated left ring finger. It got so wrecked that for the last half of the 2021-22 season, Allen could only bend the finger with the help of his right hand. He doesn’t know when or how exactly he originally hurt the finger. Now, it would just lock up on him.
It never caused Allen pain, and he said it never affected his shooting – he hit a career-high 40.9% from three-point range last year – or his passing or catching, but he decided to get it taken care of over the summer with a procedure that helped put the finger back in place.
But still, a year and a half later without proper healing and function, that finger looked Larry Bird-ish.
Allen’s natural ring size is an 11 or a 12, but it took a Size 16 ring to get over his knuckle.
“So that wasn’t going work,” said Allen, because the ring would just slide around like a hula hoop.
Instead, Allen bought a special ring with a clasp on it for the wedding to Morgan Reid Allen, in August, so that it could expand and still fit.
Allen said the timing of his wedding and honeymoon was great – it broke up the summer and the offseason perfectly – and that the original photo that circulated on social media with him in a sling was a bit over the top for the concern it caused.
“That was like the day after. It looked a little more dramatic than it was. It was just a finger,” Allen said Monday as the Bucks opened training camp.
The only thing is when he wears the collapsible ring, it rips up his skin a little, which he doesn’t need to deal with this season. So he’s going to look for a pack of the stretchy silicone rings many athletes wear.
“I still have that one, I’m going to save it for nicer occasions,” said Allen. “But the problem is whenever I take that one on and off, I just end up cutting my finger.”
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