THE NBA : Rats Haven’t Abandoned Celtics’ Ship, but Some of Them Are Talking

The surprise-o-meter went tilt last week. Even the rats, among Boston Garden’s most durable tenants, couldn’t have been ready for this one.

Larry Bird a cancer to the Celtics? Selfish? Boston barely made the playoffs when he was out most of 1988-89. With Bird this season, the team is back to respectability--14-11 heading into tonight’s game against the Clippers at the Sports Arena--but he is taking too many shots?

So says one unidentified teammate, who took his complaint to the limit last week and told the New York Post: “He used to hold us together. Now, he’s tearing us apart.” A similar story a day later in the Boston Herald aired nearly identical viewpoints, again from unidentified players.

The day the Herald story ran, the Celtics played the Utah Jazz at Boston Garden. Bird had 40 points, eight rebounds and five assists--and a jumper in the closing seconds that sealed a 113-109 victory.

Bird is averaging 23.4 points, making 46.1% from the field and shooting 19.96 times a game; he averaged 19.58 attempts the first 10 years of his career. In the midst of a comeback from heel and ankle problems that limited him to six games last season, he is the first to say the touch has not returned. But has he become a gunner?

“At some point, you’ve got to look at yourself in the mirror and ask, ‘Am I producing the way I should be on the basketball court?’ ” said Bird, who claims there is no pain associated with his recent medical history. “I’m playing very hard. My shots aren’t falling, but I’m doing my very best.

“The only time I’m not going to shoot is if the coaches tell me, or DJ (Dennis Johnson) or Robert (Parish) tell me. Then I might think about slowing down.”

“I know who was talking in the article and it’s funny to me somebody says something to somebody else when he’s not even doing his job.”

Bird would not elaborate on the source. When teammates did talk on the record, it was full support ahead for one of the greatest players ever, or at least blame was passed around.

“I don’t put much credence in stories like that,” Kevin McHale said. “I think our team chemistry is fine. The only times we have trouble are when we try to do too much ourselves. We are all guilty of that.”

Among other things.

If the league, represented by Commissioner David Stern, and the union, the National Basketball Players Assn., have both come out so strongly against betting on NBA games as part of lotteries, why do teams accept money from the organizations?

In Oregon, the center of the debate, you need go only as far as page 2 of Portland’s media guide before finding a full-page advertisement supporting the state lottery. The enterprise also sponsors Trail Blazer radio and TV broadcasts.

Is there a contradiction somewhere?

Motivation comes in different forms. For Indiana’s Reggie Miller, it was about putting Mike Tyson in his place without having to worry if the medical insurance was paid up.

It started at the benefit dinner that preceded Magic Johnson’s charity all-star game last summer. Miller was there, chatting with Johnson, Ron Harper, Mark Aguirre and Dominique Wilkins. Tyson joined the group.

“We were all talking about who we thought was going to be good this season,” Miller said last week. “I started talking about the Pacers. Mike gets into this thing about, ‘Who’s Indiana? What’s Indiana?’ It was all good-natured ribbing, but I told him, ‘OK, you just look at the box scores. You just look at the standings. You’ll see the new-look Pacers.’ ”

If Tyson has been paying attention to basketball while concentrating on boxing, he will have noticed the revamped Pacers, with eight new players and a new coach from this time a year ago, are one of the NBA’s surprise teams. Led by Miller, an early all-star candidate, Indiana is 15-9 and only a half-game behind first-place Chicago in the Central Division.

Former UCLA standout Miller figures he will wait until the end of the season before boasting to Tyson, however. Even then, he’s not sure it’s such a good idea.

“I don’t want to be victim No. 38,” he said.

All the Kings’ men: When the Sacramento Kings shook up the front office last week, it meant a couple things:

--The new president, 33-year-old Rick Benner, becomes the youngest chief executive of a professional sports team in the country.

--Landmark events happen to Bill Russell on Dec. 19.

Thirty-three years to the day he signed his first contract with the Boston Celtics, after helping the United States win the gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics, he was fired as vice president of basketball operations.

Obviously, Russell’s tenure at Sacramento was a major disappointment. It didn’t help that one of the game’s all-time greats went to a city loving most every minute of its young basketball life and alienated himself from the fans. Although he had a good rapport with players, his reputation among the people who paid to fill Arco Arena every night--literally--was that of an aloof celebrity who refused to sign autographs.

Benner put it most tactfully upon taking over. “I don’t want to say anything about what happened. I just want to say there is room for improvement, for better communication.”

Much of the blame for the Kings’ dismal record fell not on Coach Jerry Reynolds, but on Russell, because this was a team he put together. Trading for Ralph Sampson, complete with bad knees and a $1.9-million contract, and then not being able to maneuver much around the salary cap for replacements when injuries set in will be one lasting memory.

So, when Sacramento Bee columnist Joe Hamelin asked Gregg Lukenbill how hard was it to fire a legend who had the players’ respect, the team’s managing general partner paused and said: “Not as hard as watching the team lose night after night.”

NBA Notes

The SuperSonics, who insisted they would make a decision this season on whether to stay in Seattle, now say they will wait until the summer before deciding. That means they’ll be back in an arena they hate for 1990-91. Or longer. . . . Glen Rice continues to wage a food fight with himself, first reporting to camp at 231 pounds and then, after losing too much, having to be encouraged to order double entrees to bulk up to 216. “I just did not have discipline,” the Miami Heat rookie said of his off-season regimen. “My kitchen became my weightlifting room, lifting pots and pans to cook and lifting food to put into my mouth.” The No. 4 pick overall, he went into the weekend shooting 40.4%, and Coach Ron Rothstein told him to lay off the three-point shots a while to regain some confidence.

When the Utah Jazz’s John Stockton had 27 assists last Tuesday at New York, it set a quasi-record: Most assists in a road game. The three who have done better, topped by Kevin Porter with 29 for New Jersey in 1978, all accomplished the feat at home. Twenty games into the season, Stockton was averaging 14.3 assists--compared to 16.1 for the entire New Jersey Net team. . . . By beating the Chicago Bulls last Wednesday, the expansion Orlando Magic had defeated six of 1988-89’s playoff teams.