Ray ready to take best shot

Allan Ray wasted little time opening the appropriate sets of eyes. After only four workouts, he succeeded in landing a partially guaranteed, two-year deal with the Celtics. He'll have some walking-around money over the summer and, if everything goes according to plan, he will be in camp in October with a legitimate chance to make the team.

Not bad for someone who, 12 days ago, belonged to no one and was spitting nails over that predicament. Sixty names were called at the 2006 NBA draft and not one of them was Ray's. He still can't believe it.

``I was just sitting there, hoping my name would be called by someone," the former Villanova ace said. ``Everything I was hearing was that I'd go late first or early second. It was really hard listening to all those names. Things didn't work out."

But, of course, things did work out. Danny Ainge was on the phone to Ray and Ray's agent as soon as the 60th name (Will Blalock) was called. The Celtics wanted Ray in for their summer league team. At first, it was your basic summer league offer: play for us and promise not to sue. But all along, Ainge had a fond spot for Ray, a key guy on last year's Big East team that eliminated Boston College en route to the Elite Eight.

``Randy Foye [drafted seventh overall] had a great year last year," Ainge said. ``Allan Ray had a good year. But their coach told me before the season started that he thought Ray was rated higher."

Ray averaged 18.5 points a game for the Wildcats last season, earning Associated Press All-America honors (third team) and first-team All-Big East. But at the NBA level he is unfortunately cast as a shooting guard in a point guard's body as he is generously listed at 6 feet 2 inches and is a flat-out shooter. But, Ainge said, Ray's standing reach, measured during the recent draft camp in Orlando, Fla., is 2 inches higher than that of J.J. Redick and Foye (both listed at 6-4). So, Ainge said, ``I don't see him as being short."

That was why Ainge made the quick call to Ray on draft night. (Boston also suspects that West Virginia's Mike Gansey, whom the Celtics also hoped to have in for Summer League, looked elsewhere when he heard that Ray was going to Boston. Gansey ended up getting some guaranteed money from Miami, where one of his Summer League teammates will be ex-Celtic Joseph Forte.)

``We jumped on the Boston situation right away and took advantage of it," Ray said.

The Celtics not only have a seasoned guy (four years at Villanova) but they also have a guy who is determined to show everyone that they made a mistake in passing him by on the night of June 28.

``I am coming in with a big chip on my shoulder," Ray said. ``I just felt like, on draft night, someone spit right into my face. Not to hear your name called at all, that was heartbreaking news. So I am going to look at this as another opportunity to get out there and show my skills. My season starts now."

Serb officials lay down letter of the law

With the world championships in Japan looming, the national hoops federation of defending champion Serbia and Montenegro is applying the pressure to get its players to commit.

The Serbs already know they will not have Peja Stojakovic for the tournament, which begins Aug. 19. Additionally, the reigning MVP in Serbia's league play, Dejan Milojevic, is not participating because of a knee ailment.

NBA players Nenad Krstic and Sasha Pavlovic have not signed on as of yet, which may have prompted an extraordinary letter/appeal from the national federation. While not naming anyone, the letter was otherwise quite clear:

``Despite the fact that we thought the creation of one, new, young generation of players in a new state would be more than enough of a challenge and motivation for all those players called upon, some of them still do not recognize the importance and significance of words like patriotism, homeland, origin, forefathers, and a debt in life that you should pay. What has happened in the heads of some of the young players that they cannot perceive the importance of playing for the national team while they are watching the megastars at the FIFA World Cup? How they fight, play, mourn or celebrate while they are in a national team jersey, how it is obvious that it is more important to them than any money they've earned or will earn. Is it possible they will say `hello' and then talk with a bowed head while they are with stars like [Germany's Dirk ] Nowitzki, [France's Tony ] Parker, and [Spain's Pau ] Gasol, players who -- despite being some of the biggest names in basketball -- play for their country without question? Is it possible they have already forgotten the start of their careers, playing for clubs big and small in this country, and now do they not feel that they must pay back a debt to their clubs and their national organization, which raised them? Is it possible that they don't realize that they have a rare privilege to make their nation happy? Dear fans of basketball, in our country, quality basketball will be played, many medals will be won again at big competitions, with the hope that we'll always have great players, but true players whose play and behavior will be the pattern for many future generations."

The Serbs automatically qualified for the tournament by virtue of their gold medal performance in 2002 at Indianapolis. However, they were humiliated in the Athens Olympics two years later, not even making it to the medal round.

It's easy to be bullish on Bulls

So, how surprised was Danny Ainge to see Ben Wallace agree to leave the Pistons to sign with the Bulls?

``It was a little bit surprising, but I could sort of see it coming when you saw that Ben wasn't playing in the fourth quarter of some of their playoff games," Ainge said. ``You could see right then and there that he was frustrated. And there were some issues with the coaches."

Paul Pierce, meanwhile, offered these thoughts on the Bulls' extreme front-line makeover, which included Tyson Chandler being dealt to New Orleans for P.J. Brown and J.R. Smith.

``They were a team that we were just this close away from [his finger and thumb were an inch apart] and now they just [improved] themselves," Pierce said.

``They're not going to be able to re-sign all their young guys, so they had to do a trade and get Ben Wallace. You've got to trade for veterans to get better."

Actually, Paul, the Bulls will now be able to re-sign the young guys they want to keep, starting this summer with Kirk Hinrich.

Dumping Chandler's contract not only gives them the needed budget room -- owner Jerry Reinsdorf is not going to pay a luxury tax -- but also prevents the younger players from using Chandler's silly contract ($10 million per) as a starting point.

And the thought of Wallace, a four-time Defensive Player of the Year, joining a team that has been No. 1 in defensive field goal percentage the last two years is positively terrifying. You can easily make a case for the Bulls vaulting to the conference finals next season.

And if Miami is there, well, no team does a better job defending Dwyane Wade than Chicago.

M.L. Carr put on his Charlotte Bobcats cheerleader outfit the other day when the topic of conversation turned to Adam Morrison, the team's first-round pick in the draft. Carr, one of the Bobcats' owners/partners, had this to say about the former Gonzaga star: ``The best thing in the world is to take a look at Adam and when I do, I see a cross between ``Pistol" Pete [Maravich] and Larry Bird. That's where Adam will be, somewhere in between them. He's got the Pistol's hair and Larry's mustache. And it's all about the hair. I cut Ben Wallace [in Boston] because he didn't have the hair back then. He didn't have his strength."

Carr said he attended Antoine Walker's charity golf tournament in Chicago June 26 and, when it came time for the dinner portion, Walker entered the room to cries of ``champ, champ." Said Carr, ``It was just like being at a heavyweight fight and hearing the crowd chant for the champion." Paul Pierce said he is happy for Walker, especially considering all the abuse that 'Toine endured along the way. ``Me and Antoine are friends and I've watched his career sort of since the beginning, being an All-Star, getting traded to Dallas, back to Boston, to Miami, getting booed in the FleetCenter, getting booed in Miami. Now, it's like [the Heat] have a championship and he's a big part of it. It's like now what are people going to say? I think he's silenced a lot of his critics, about what type of guy he is, about what type of player he is. He's shown that he can have an impact on a championship team."

As if the Atlanta Hawks don't have enough problems, now it appears they will be unable to sign any meaningful free agents until their ownership squabble is resolved. That was the effect of a judge's ruling last Thursday, although it apparently doesn't apply to Atlanta's recent agreement with Speedy Claxton, believed to be for several years. The judge said the Hawks could sign free agents to one-year deals, which, of course, means nothing because no free agent will sign for one year. How this affects Hawks forward Al Harrington, an unrestricted free agent, is anyone's guess. It sure looks as if Harrington missed the first free agent bonanza, with the Bulls and Hornets being the most active players. (The Bulls were thought to be a likely destination for Harrington until Wallace drained Chicago's reserves.) Harrington's best hope of getting a big deal now appears to be via sign-and-trade, which apparently is OK under the judge's ruling. The latest twist in the Hawks' ownership mess came last month, when the judge ruled that Steve Belkin has the right to buy out the same partners who appeared to have removed Belkin from the group. The judge's ruling has been appealed.

If you see anyone wearing a shirt with a Celtics logo outside the house of 76ers general manager Billy King, he is there to see if/when the white smoke emerges from King's chimney, signifying the Allen Iverson deal is done. Until then, who knows? The Celtics are thought to be one of three teams known to be in pursuit of Iverson, along with the Nuggets and Warriors. But the Sixers weren't moved by any of Denver's proposals because Philly wants young players and all the Nuggets have talked about are Kenyon Martin, Nene, Andre Miller, and Marcus Camby. Denver doesn't have the package of promising youth that the Celtics and Warriors could offer. Golden State, for instance, has Ike Diogu, Mikael Pietrus, Andris Biedrins, and Monta Ellis to possibly entice the Sixers. All are 24 or younger. But the Warriors would need to add one of their high-salaried underachievers to make the deal cap-friendly. The Warriors were apparently able to move one bad contract, Derek Fisher's, to Utah for three NBDL-type bodies. The Celtics would still like to get a third team involved in the Iversonpalooza.

Material from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.