The NBA / Chris Baker : Celtics’ Walton Practices for the First Time This Season

Bill Walton is back.

Walton, who has been injured, practiced Monday with the Boston Celtics, for the first time this season.

Walton worked out in a controlled setting of four-on-four drills with the Celtic reserves.

Coach K.C. Jones had given the Celtic regulars the day off and took one off himself, not attending the mini-practice.

The Celtics don’t know when--or if--Walton will return to action.

“You could tell his timing was off a little bit,” Greg Kite told Peter May of the Hartford Courant. “There were times when I went up for rebounds and I got them. That wouldn’t happen in a game.”

Said Boston General Manager Jan Volk: “It’s gratifying to see him work out. But he hasn’t met the ultimate test, and that’s playing.”

Walton would not talk to reporters after the practice.

Walton had also practiced with injured star Larry Bird Sunday while the Celtics were playing in Detroit. Bird has missed two games after he injured his back while pulling the starter cord on his leaf blower last week.

There’s trouble in Motown.

The Detroit Pistons, locked in a tight race with the Atlanta Hawks for the Central Division lead, are fighting among themselves.

Reserve guard Vinnie Johnson and forward Rick Mahorn, who will be free agents at the end of the season, are complaining about lack of playing time.

“We forgot what got us into first place,” Johnson told columnist Pete Vecsey of the New York Post last week. “When the starters were struggling earlier this season, the subs were carrying them. But lately we’re not getting consistent time. The coach believes the starters have to get minutes to be effective, but what about us?

“I understand it’s a team game, but that’s (bleep).”

The Pistons held a 75-minute team meeting to clear the air after Johnson’s comments were published.

Said star forward Adrian Dantley: “Most teams only have two or three egos, but we have eight.”

When Julius Erving makes his final visit to Madison Square Garden April 6, the New York Knicks will have a special pregame show.

The theme: “Is there a doctor in the house?”

The Knicks have invited Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Dr. Kildare (actor Richard Chamberlain), Dr. Joyce Brothers, Dr. Seuss (author Theodor Geisel, Dwight (Dr. K) Gooden, Dr. McCoy of Star Trek (actor Deforest Kelly), Dr. Henry Kissinger, Dr. Marcus Welby (actor Robert Young), and Bill Cosby, who has a Ph.D. from Temple and plays Dr. Clifford Huxtable on television.

Stan Kasten, the president and general manager of the Atlanta Hawks, may be working too hard.

Kasten, who is also the president of the Atlanta Braves, has trouble keeping his two jobs separate.

He said he woke up in a cold sweat before the NBA trading deadline three weeks ago. “I dreamed that (Brave) Manager Bobby Cox had traded Dominique Wilkins to the Clippers for a second-round draft pick,” Kasten said.

When rookie center Chris Washburn of the Golden State Warriors entered a drug rehabilitation center in Van Nuys Jan. 28, club officials said he would be hospitalized for a minimum of four weeks.

Washburn has been gone for nearly six weeks and the Warriors say they have no idea when he will be released.

Still, Warrior Coach George Karl said he’d like to see Washburn return to the team and play again this season.

Washburn has agreed to remain in the Bay Area this summer.

Guard Gerald Wilkins of the New York Knicks is reportedly trying to have his contract renegotiated.

Wilkins, averaging 26.6 points, reportedly has a three-year contract paying him a total of $590,000, which works out to less than $200,000 a season.

He recently fired his agent.

Cedric Maxwell might have left the Clippers, but he’s still taking shots at former teammate Benoit Benjamin.

“Want to know what I think of Benoit Benjamin?” Maxwell told a reporter for the Arizona Republic. “I voted for Nick Vanos as the best rookie center last year.”

Vanos played in just 11 games last season.