In the bonus situation

Who ever figured that one of the words to come out of the 2007 NBA playoffs would be "retinoblastoma"?

The compelling story of Utah guard Derek Fisher's 10-month-old daughter and the subsequent emotional return to action by Fisher in Game 2 of the Utah-Golden State series has trumped just about everything to date. There was drama, a life likely saved, and out of it all came more publicity for the eye cancer (retinoblastoma) than anyone could have envisioned.

"This is my life's work," said Dr. David Abramson of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. "Over the course of the last 30 years, I've written about 500 papers, given hundreds of lectures, written some books about the subject. But a very good point guard has done more to publicize this than my last 400 publications combined. It's quite extraordinary."

Fisher's daughter, Tatum, was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, and doctors in Utah subsequently turned to Abramson and Dr. Pierre Gobin, who have been conducting a clinical trial for eye cancer patients. In most cases, removal of the eye cured the cancer. But Abramson's trial called for injecting a strong anti-cancer drug into the blood vessel of the eye in hopes of killing the cancer, saving the eye, and eventually restoring normal vision. They had developed this protocol in the last year and had performed the procedure on fewer than 20 patients.

The survival rate is almost 100 percent in the United States for retinoblastoma. Elsewhere, it's about 50 percent. But those figures were based on the removal of the eye. This was something new.

So how lucky was Tatum Fisher to see Abramson when she did?

"About as lucky as hitting a game-winning shot with four-tenths of a second left," Abramson said, referencing Fisher's ultra-dramatic game-winner in Game 5 of the 2004 Western Conference semifinals against the Spurs while with the Lakers.

Abramson said he had no idea who Fisher was when the Jazz guard and his family showed up at his New York office last Monday. Once he learned, he offered to adjust the treatment schedule so that Fisher could get back for Game 2. Fisher refused and insisted on having everything done according to Hoyle. No special perks or privileges. He had missed Game 1 of the series last Monday and also practice last Tuesday. He was iffy at best for Wednesday's Game 2.

Abramson first determined that Tatum Fisher's retinoblastoma was hers and hers alone among the Fisher family. As a rule, Abramson said, if the cancer is present in other family members, it usually affects both eyes. Tatum had the cancer in one eye -- her left -- and no other Fisher family member had it.

Abramson and Gobin did the procedure Wednesday morning across the street from Sloan-Kettering at New York Presbyterian Hospital. It took less than one hour. By midday, they determined that the procedure had been a success. Fisher and his family then hopped aboard a private jet to fly back to Salt Lake City. Thanks to the time difference, not to mention a police escort from the airport, Fisher was able to make it back for the third quarter.

By that point, most TV viewers were aware of Tatum's plight and saw the inevitable drain on Fisher as he walked into the building. Fisher entered the game (the Jazz fortunately had put his name on the active roster) and proceeded to make two big defensive plays, knock down a crushing 3-pointer, and help Utah escape with a 127-117 overtime victory.

The following day, Fisher spoke at length about his ordeal, generating the publicity about which Abramson talked.

"We're already getting calls from parents whose kids were going to have to have their eyes removed who now will not have to have the eye removed," Abramson said.

Abramson said Tatum Fisher still has doctor's visits looming to see if the cancer is going away, but, he said, "I have no doubt the child will live. And I believe there is a very good chance we will be able to save the eye."

That's what they call a win-win.

World of difference for US

The US team that takes the floor at the Thomas & Mack Center in August for the Olympic qualifier will have quite a different look from the one that finished third at last year's World Championships.

USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo has issued invitations to several players who were not in the first group of 24 -- among them Tyson Chandler, Carlos Boozer, Marcus Camby, Mike Miller, Kevin Durant, Jason Kidd, and Deron Williams. Colangelo said he has acceptances from all of the above save for Camby. He also said he does not expect to see several of the original 24 at the team's training camp, be it because of surgery (Dwyane Wade, Lamar Odom, Chris Paul, Gilbert Arenas), the likelihood the player won't make the team (J.J. Redick, Adam Morrison), or injuries and other personal issues (Paul Pierce, Antawn Jamison, Bruce Bowen, and Brad Miller).

The qualifying team should have no trouble getting to the gold-medal game with a backcourt of Kidd, Chauncey Billups, and Kobe Bryant and a front line helped by a rejuvenated Amare Stoudemire, who didn't play in the Worlds.

"I think we'll be a much stronger team," Colangelo said. "Last year, we were young. We were inexperienced at the point guard position. This team will have a lot more toughness and experience."

The US team lost to Greece in the semifinals at the Worlds, which, Colangelo acknowledged, "shouldn't have happened. But it did. They got hot. We had trouble defending the high pick-and-roll. It was what it was."

The top two finishers in the 2007 qualifying tournament will get invitations to Beijing. Olympic gold medalist Argentina will be without many of its big names (although Ruben Wolkowyski is playing), which should make the Yanks' case somewhat easier. The other participants are Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, the US Virgin Islands, and Venezuela.

Don't buy the decision on Rivers? Go right to the top

Judging by a reading of e-mails and blog entries Friday, there doesn't appear to be a whole lot of joy in Celticville over the decision to add a year to Doc Rivers's contract.

These people didn't want Doc this year. Or last year. Now two more years? The anger is misdirected. It should be addressed to Danny Ainge and to ownership.

Ainge lobbied long and hard for Rivers. Ownership signed off on it. They're the ones who hired Doc. They're the ones who have kept Doc on board even as the team imploded in the 2005 playoffs and then won 57 games over the next two years. They're the ones who didn't say, "Doc, let's see what happens in 2007-08. You fulfill your contract. We'll take the risk that you win a lot of games, become a hot property, and go somewhere else."

In the last month, we've seen ownership publicize the removal of Sebastian Telfair's nameplate from his practice locker, effectively undercutting Ainge's attempts to move the kid. Now we get a one-year extension for a coach who has never won a playoff series and is 42 games under .500 in three years as coach of the Celtics.

I've never felt that he was the real culprit in the team's poor play over the last two years. The coach of the Harlem Globetrotters couldn't have won with what he had. Meanwhile, Rick Carlisle is out there for the taking and he has proven he can win, in the regular season and postseason, and with all sorts of rosters and lunatics.

But the men at the top are committed to Doc and showed him the money. You tired of seeing Doc? Tired of the way he coaches? Take it up with them.

One e-mail seemed to sum up the feelings: "I love the Celtics and I love my country, but right now, they're both being run by idiots."

Etc.

Eyeing a seat on the bench
Two years removed from his last coaching stint, former Celtics/Sixers head man Jim O'Brien is looking to get back on an NBA bench. There will be opportunities, that's for sure. Several teams already have vacancies (Memphis, Sacramento, Indiana, Charlotte, Seattle) and others might open up (Orlando, Houston). O'Brien has kept abreast of the NBA, writing for ESPN.com, watching tons of games, and hoping the phone rings. "It's hard not coaching," he said. "I watch a lot of it on television, but you're not involved when you do that. That's what I miss the most of all, being involved with a team and an organization." O'Brien said two years out of the league can make it harder -- "people tend to lose touch, and that's human" -- but he can point to six playoff series in his three years as a head coach.

7, 11 a good roll for Pistons
With their inspiring comeback Thursday night, the Pistons became the 11th team in NBA history to win its first seven games of a postseason. Of the 10 previous teams who came out of the blocks at 7-0, seven of them, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, went on to win the title. The three who didn't: the 1989 Lakers, the 1999 Pacers, and the 2005 Heat. Of those three, only the Lakers advanced to the NBA Finals, and they were swept by the Pistons. But they had extenuating circumstances, losing Byron Scott and Magic Johnson to injuries. The Pistons also became just the second team since the inception of the shot clock in 1954 to win a playoff game after scoring fewer than 30 points (28) in the first half. The other was the 2004 Pistons, who scored 27 points in the first half of Game 6 of the conference finals, then rallied to win, 69-64, and take the series en route to the title.

Silent treatment
John Amaechi spoke to the Log Cabin Republicans last week and told the audience that he had not heard a word from any of his former NBA teammates since coming out in February. He thinks as many as 30 former teammates have either his e-mail address or phone information, but, he said, "Zero, nobody who's active in the NBA has been in touch with me, despite the fact that most of them knew I was gay in the first place." Amaechi did say he has heard from most of his college teammates at Penn State.

A couple of tidbits from the Celtics' stat book. Kendrick Perkins appears to have benefited enormously from the change in basketballs Jan. 1. Perk was a brutal free throw shooter in the first two months of the season, missing 17 of 25 from the line. But from Jan. 1, he was 52 of 75. Perkins ended up being a 60 percent free throw shooter, but shot nearly 70 percent in the last 3 1/2 months. Ryan Gomes, meanwhile, didn't attempt a 3-pointer until Jan. 13 and didn't make one until Feb. 7. Yet, in his last nine games, he launched 33 treys, including seven in one game. He attempted only nine in his rookie season but took 42 this season. He made 16, shooting 38 percent from international waters -- better than Delonte West, Gerald Green, Tony Allen, and Sebastian Telfair.

Old friend Sam Vincent is getting ample opportunities to brush up on his interviewing technique, with calls about coaching work in three cities. Vincent joined the Mavericks staff this season as an assistant after being a head coach in the development league. He also has been a head coach in South Africa, Greece, the Netherlands, and Nigeria, where he coached the women's national team to the 2004 Olympics and the men's team to the bronze medal at the African championships. Should some team take a flyer on him, he would become the sixth member of the 1985-86 Celtics to become an NBA head coach. A seventh, Jerry Sichting, was an assistant for years and an eighth, Robert Parish, coached in the minors.

Guess who's blogging? None other than Bill Russell, the greatest winner in NBA history. Russ is sharing his thoughts on NBA.com and offered these insights in the wake of Golden State's stunning dismissal of Dallas: "When you talk about the playoffs, you have to talk about how two teams match up against each other. Nothing else is relevant. When I was playing, there were a lot of times where people said we were underdogs, but we just couldn't understand what they were talking about. There are people that really don't know that much about the game." Russell will give up the keyboard for the cap and gown next Sunday when he delivers the commencement address at Suffolk University.

Peter May can be reached at p_may@globe.com; material from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.