Oh boy, this one's on Danny

When Ryan Gomes was not picked to play on the nine-man, second-year team for a game against the top rookies during All-Star Weekend, Doc Rivers offered the following explanation: "Our record [bad word]."

Yes, it does. And so does his team.

The coach doesn't (bad word), although you'd think he's the spawn of the devil by some of the things you read. No, he's not going to Springfield as a coach, but he's not Roy Rubin II, either. The players, individually, don't (bad word). In fact, we've seen some positive signs in all this mess. It's the amalgamation that has become the 2006-07 Celtics that (bad word).

And that is on Danny Ainge.

He has assembled this team and it was pretty clear even before Paul Pierce went down that it was flawed. (It was 10-14 after the Dec. 20 loss to Golden State, playing the league's easiest schedule.) Pierce's injury not only underscores his value to this team, it has shown that what remains simply cannot get the job done on any reasonable basis (like, for instance, a single win in a month).

I found it amazing to read a remark by Ainge this past week before he went to China. In an interview with Chad Ford of ESPN, Ainge actually said, "I never really envisioned having this many young players on the team at once." Huh? He drafted them. He traded for them. If he didn't envision it, who did?

The team he has constructed and given to Rivers has been unable to win on any consistent basis. The players he has given to Rivers have shown they can play in the NBA, some better than others. But thrown together, there is simply too much callowness and not enough savvy. It's a doomed experiment. There's no history of young players growing together, maturing together, taking their lumps together, and, at last, winning together. The Bulls tried that after Michael left.

Right now, Celtics fans can see Al Jefferson putting up nice numbers, which he is doing. Delonte West is showing a toughness the team sorely needs. Gomes is a rock. Tony Allen appeared to be coming into his own before his injury. Rajon Rondo shows promise. Gerald Green can be entertaining and, occasionally, effective. But Green, Gomes, and Rondo were not chosen to play in Las Vegas at the Rookie-Sophomore game -- and it wasn't just because the Celtics' record (bad word). Charlotte has two players in the game. The Trail Blazers, Knicks, and Grizzlies each have a representative. Their records (bad word).

There are a lot of people in the NBA who like some of the Celtics' young players, but not as much as the Celtics like them. The widely held view on most of them is that they'd be serviceable reserves on a good team. (Pau Gasol doesn't want to come here, for instance.) How do you win with that kind of team? Yes, you could parachute Gomes or West onto the Spurs and my guess is that San Antonio wouldn't suffer at all. And that is part of the problem going forward, because when (or if) Ainge does deal any of these guys, they're likely going to prosper in their new environment, if for no other reason than they won't be playing with each other anymore.

And Bob Lobel will be saying, "Why can't we get players like that?"

This was supposed to be the season the kids made it or didn't. Yes, injuries have derailed the plan, but injuries happen to every team. Rick Carlisle lost his three best players for more than a month -- one for the year -- and still managed to get the Pacers into the playoffs in 2005. But this situation has spun so out of control now that the prevailing questions are (a) Why bring Pierce back at all? and (b) Greg Oden or Kevin Durant? And there still is almost half a season remaining.

I don't know what Ainge has in mind in the weeks leading up to the trading deadline. I would guess he is loath to do much of anything that would improve the team to the point where it wins just enough not to get a legitimate shot at Oden or Durant (assuming they come out). But at some point he needs to identify two or three of these guys as keepers and trade the rest, understanding -- and not caring -- that the ones he lets go may flourish in their new surroundings. Let's see what these chips that Ainge says he now has are worth.

As West put it on media day, "Once you've checked into the NBA, it's man-up time. Who needs to have their hand held? Who needs to be in the young category? Go get in the kiddie pool. It's adult swim, you know what I mean?"

We do.

Stealing his memories

More than a few eyebrows were raised recently when a 1984 NBA championship ring belonging to former Celtics owner Don Gaston popped up on eBay with an asking price of $25,000. An e-mail to the seller revealed that he did not get the ring from Don or his son, Paul Gaston. No kidding. The thing was hotter than a furnace in February, which Don Gaston realized when he tried to locate the ring. (He also has one from the 1986 championship team, which he was able to locate.)

The Gaston family enlisted the help of Rich Pond, the former Celtics' man of many important titles, and Pond quickly got in touch with the seller and demanded the ring be returned to Gaston.

"Don's reaction was that he wants the ring back," Pond said. "He never gave the ring to anybody. It's not something that he wears. It may have been stolen a while ago and he never knew it."

In further correspondences with the seller, who Pond said turned out to be a ring dealer, Pond was told that this was not the first time the ring had been up for sale, although no one could remember any outcry like the one this potential sale created. "The whole thing is very strange," Pond said.

He is continuing to try to get the ring returned, but he also knows that the seller bought it from someone, who probably bought it from someone, who, well, you know how that goes. Don Gaston, Alan Cohen, and Paul Dupee purchased the Celtics from Harry Mangurian and won a championship in their first year of stewardship, 1984. They took the team public a few years later and Cohen and Dupee eventually got out, with Don Gaston turning things over to Paul Gaston in the early 1990s.

Ramsay shares a few passing thoughts on Inman

The death of former Portland general manager Stu Inman last week at age 80 brought back some wistful memories from Dr. Jack Ramsay, who coached the 1977 NBA champion Blazers, which Inman had put together.

"He was just a very dedicated, old-school basketball person," Ramsay said. "He loved the game, the nuances of the game, and he was a great judge of talent. He worked very hard at what he did and he went everywhere and anywhere if he thought there was a prospect he should see."

Inman will go down in NBA history as the only man who passed on both Larry Bird and Michael Jordan when they were eligible for the NBA draft. The Jordan story is well known; the Blazers had the No. 2 pick in 1984 and took Sam Bowie. Ramsay was the coach at the time. "We already had two quality [shooting] guards in Jim Paxson and Clyde Drexler," Ramsay said. "And we had no center. So it was a very logical decision on our part. And no one knew Michael was going to be as good as he turned out to be."

Six years before that, the Blazers had the No. 1 and No. 7 picks in the draft. Bird was eligible. Portland passed on him at No. 1, taking Mychal Thompson (Bill Walton was injured and would soon leave for San Diego). The Celtics picked Bird at No. 6 and Inman later said Bird likely would have been taken No. 7, even though he had some misgivings.

"I didn't think his body would hold up," Inman said, when asked about his reasons for not drafting Bird. "He had that beer-drinking, softball-player image and you wondered how well he took care of himself." Inman said he had one conversation with Bird that spring and suggested getting together. "He said he was playing softball," Inman said. "I said I'd get back to him, but I never could. His phone was disconnected. The athletic department said they'd take messages, but you know how that went."

Larry unreachable? Shocking.

Etc.

Barea developing his game
The NBA luminaries won't be the only All-Stars playing basketball in Las Vegas during All-Star Weekend. The D-League All-Star Game is also that weekend, on Saturday, Feb. 17, at Mandalay Bay. Hey, the Celtics will have at least one six-degrees-of-separation connection in the game: Joe Wolf, who appeared in two games for the 1992-93 Celtics, is the coach of the Western Division team. He coaches the Colorado 14ers in the D-League. The Eastern Division team is being coached by Sidney Moncrief, whose D-League job is the head coach of the Fort Worth Flyers. The rosters will be announced this week and former Northeastern point guard Jose Juan Barea could be chosen. The kid has made quite an impact since the Mavericks assigned him to their Fort Worth affiliate in January, averaging 27.3 points, 7.8 assists, and 5 rebounds in his first eight games. Last week, he earned Performer of the Week honors -- the first NBA-assigned player to do so -- for twice topping the 40-point barrier with games of 43 and 41 points.

Anthony deserves Star treatment
When was the last time an NBA scoring champion was not picked for an All-Star team? How about never? What were the Western Conference coaches thinking in not picking Carmelo Anthony as a reserve? Yes, he did a dumb thing in New York. But he apologized the next day, took his medicine from the commissioner (15-game suspension), and has continued to play well since he returned. Because of that, Anthony should get the nod when commissioner David Stern names at least one replacement for the Western team because Yao Ming is not going to participate. There's also a chance that Carlos Boozer won't go because of a knee injury, which would create a second opening for the Western squad, which should go to Josh Howard. How the Mavericks can have only one All-Star representative is mind-boggling, but it also points to the depth in the West.

Risky business for Nocioni
Bulls forward Andres Nocioni hinted last week that he may not be able to play for Argentina in this summer's Olympic qualifier in Las Vegas. The reason: He will be a free agent (assuming he hasn't signed by then, of course) and wisely wants to protect himself (see Gasol, Pau, for a reference). "I want to be in Las Vegas," Nocioni said in a teleconference with reporters. "I want to play for the national team to qualify for the [Olympics], but I cannot say if I will be able." Nocioni, of course, has been a mainstay of the Argentine national team ever since he drove baseline and dunked over Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan in the 1999 zone qualifier in San Juan. "I want to play for Argentina, but I don't know if that will happen." The championships run from Aug. 22 to Sept. 2, which could bode well for Nocioni, in that he should be signed by someone at that point.

Wondering who all those people are at Celtics games these days? People, sometimes young people, sitting in the good seats, to watch the team with the worst record in the conference? Well, here's one possibility, as voiced from a season ticket-holder with seats in nosebleed territory. "Throughout the year, as subscribers to Celtics Beat, the team's online newsletter, we've been getting offers for 50% off much better seats. The most recent offer was for the Spurs game last week. Needless to say, next year we'll pass on the season tix and just buy some decent seats for 50% off. Quality over quantity." That e-mail came out before the Celtics-Clippers game Friday. The Celtics also sent out a similar e-mail for the Clippers game, offering $60 loge seats for $30 and $30 balcony seats for $15. At 2 p.m., there were plenty of tickets available.

This is the time of year when the rodeo hits San Antonio (and honestly, does it get any better than that?) and the Spurs go on an extended road trip with periodic stops at home. This year, the Spurs will travel more than 7,500 miles in playing nine straight road games, starting with last Sunday's tilt in LA against the Lakers and closing with a Valentine's Day appointment in Auburn Hills, Mich., with the Pistons. They will have gone almost a month (Jan. 26 to Feb. 20) between games at the AT&T Center. The Spurs are 1-2 on the trip, beating the Lakers while losing to the Jazz and the Suns on back-to-back nights. It was the first time this season that the Suns have posted a win against San Antonio, Dallas, Utah, or the Lakers. Those four teams pinned six losses on the Suns in the first nine games (when Amare Stoudemire, who had 24 points and 23 rebounds Thursday, was still not quite fit). Since then, Phoenix is, ahem, 34-3, (not including last night's game with Utah, against whom the Suns were 0-2).

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