Telfair, Celtics trying to get back on point

WALTHAM -- It's usually not a good sign when the local television stations send news crews to practice. That means there's something other than basketball going on -- and that was the case yesterday with the Celtics.

Telfairgate entered its third day amid firm denials from the man in the middle of all this, Celtics guard Sebastian Telfair, that he had anything to do with a shooting in New York City earlier in the week that wounded a rapper. All Telfair knows is that he's no longer the owner of a very expensive necklace and was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"I wasn't being investigated for any shooting," Telfair said yesterday. "I was being investigated for my situation, which was my necklace was snatched from my neck. The investigation has gone on. I'm done with it."

Asked about reports that he is being investigated and that he has turned over his cell phone records to police (which his lawyer told the New York Post), Telfair said, "not that I know about." He repeated that he had cooperated with the police. The Post reported police believe Telfair made an "angry phone call" after his necklace was stolen.

Telfair and his fiancee went out to dinner Monday night at Justin's, a popular restaurant owned by Sean "Diddy" Combs in the city's Chelsea section. Telfair had to move his car from in front of the restaurant to a parking garage, then four men approached him, and his necklace, which news reports have valued at $50,000, was stripped from his neck. A short time later, the rapper Fabolous was shot in the leg outside the restaurant. Asked if there was retaliation involved, Telfair said, "I'm done with that. I have cooperated with the police already. It's under investigation. I'm moving on. It's an investigation. I'm done with the situation, my part of it."

Later that night, Telfair could not identify his attackers from a police lineup.

"I was in an unfortunate situation," Telfair said. "You want to say I'm a bad person because I was out with my fiancee, then that's what it is. I know who I am. My teammates and the organization know who I am. I plan to focus on basketball at this point."

Celtics captain Paul Pierce said he has talked to Telfair. "I told him, `We've got your back.' He has our full support. I've been in situations like that. Guys have to realize that they are targets. It's a thin line. You're asking a guy to go to a safer environment [to eat], but you're asking a guy to go somewhere where he probably don't like the food. It's difficult being in this situation as an NBA player. I can't say, `Sebastian, don't go out to eat at one of your favorite restaurants.' These guys want to enjoy themselves."

Celtics coach Doc Rivers, who told reporters Tuesday night after the Celtics-Knicks exhibition game that Telfair had a stomach ailment when Telfair was viewing a police lineup, said the team is satisfied that Telfair had no role in the shooting.

"He didn't do anything," Rivers said. "But his name is in a bad circle for him going to dinner with his [fiancee]. The same thing could happen to you or me. That's a circumstance he can do nothing about. I don't know how you stay out of it. He should be able to go to dinner. In the long term, Sebastian's character will show that he's a good guy and, at the end of the day, that will win out."

It took five games, 17 days, and countless practices for the Celtics to do what everyone pretty much figured they'd do all along at some point: release Kevin Pittsnogle and Akin Akingbala. Combined, they logged 16 minutes in the exhibition season, each scoring 3 points. Rivers said he hated to let the raw but athletic 7-foot Akingbala go. "Someday, we'll see him again [in the NBA]. Maybe not here, but hopefully here," Rivers said. "That was a tough one for me to let him walk out of the gym." The Celtics still have one more cut to make (assuming there are no trades), and Rivers said that won't come until much later. All rosters have to be submitted to the NBA Oct. 30 by 6 p.m. No team can have more than 15 players . . . Delonte West, who has appeared in only one exhibition game because of back and toe woes, practiced yesterday, and Rivers said the plan was for West to play tonight against the Knicks in an exhibition game at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn. "We've got to get Delonte on the floor," Rivers said. "We need to start giving the bulk of the minutes to the guys who are going to play." Rivers said he has identified eight players as everyday players. "We need 10," he said. He wouldn't identify the select octet. "You can probably figure it out yourselves," he said . . . Neither Brian Scalabrine (left shoulder) nor Theo Ratliff (back) will play tonight. Ratliff has played only 29 minutes in the exhibition season, and Scalabrine 38.