THEIR LUCK HAS RUN OUT

The Celtics are coming! The Celtics are coming!

Right, as if anyone cares.

A generation has grown up since they were the NBA’s smartest, most successful, most conniving, most feared and by far its most hated team. Whether they were the dirtiest is arguable, but playing them was like playing no one else.

A former Lakers official admits to having been in charge of calling Celtics players in the middle of the night at their hotel in Los Angeles during the 1984 Finals.

Of course, the former official insists they were only retaliating after the Celtics did it to them.

During their decade-long duel in the ‘80s, Coach Pat Riley once asked his Lakers who the real Celtics were. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar identified them as the fierce northern people who settled Ireland.

Said Riley, who is of Irish descent, “I had to explain they were also a cunning, secretive race.”

What goes around comes around, even if it takes 50 years, which is how long it has been since the Celtics won the first of their 16 championships.

This spring will mark the 20th anniversary of their last Finals appearance. They’ve been in the playoffs 10 times since and beyond the first round in four.

Now rebuilding in earnest, they’re more like a Cub Scouts pack than one of those old Celtics teams. With the NBA’s new age rule, den leader, er, Coach Doc Rivers, said, “I’m the last coach who’ll ever have four high school players.”

Three of those players who did not attend college -- Gerald Green, Al Jefferson and Kendrick Perkins -- are in his eight-man rotation.

Unfortunately, they went seven weeks without Paul Pierce, which left them like Cub Scouts lost in the forest.

Pierce missed 24 games, of which they lost 22. By the time he got back, they were on a 16-game losing streak, en route to their club record of 18.

They might have gone for the NBA record of 24 if they hadn’t won their last game at home, with Pierce scoring 32 points in a 117-97 rout of Milwaukee, before this five-game West Coast trip.

“I categorize my [telephone] calls in two ways,” says Rivers. “One is from people like [Marquette Coach] Tom Crean, [Philadelphia vice president] Larry Brown. They call you and say, ‘Your guys are playing hard, they’re executing, you can see the improvement they’re making.’ And at the end of the conversation, I say, ‘I understand that. And we’re still losing.’

“And the other kind are when they say, ‘How are you? How are you feeling?’ And to those I say, ‘I’m still living.’ ”

The Celtics have since started a new streak, losing here and in Phoenix, so more phone calls may be coming.

Red’s not coming back, either

Larry Bird is not walking through that door, fans. Kevin McHale is not walking through that door.... And if you expect them to walk through that door, they’re going to be gray and old.

-- Celtics Coach Rick Pitino,

March 1, 2000

Red Auerbach died three days before this season, leading to “It’s a good thing Red didn’t live to see this” jokes about the losing streak, the new dance team and local fans chanting “MVP!” for the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant.

However, Auerbach was a tough guy who maintained a dignified silence as their banners were moved to a new arena that was renamed twice, not counting the time they auctioned off naming rights weekly and a Yankees fan tried to call it the Derek Jeter Center.

Auerbach’s accomplishments are even more breathtaking in retrospect, starting with the most fundamental of all: He taught the NBA to think.

He built three distinct powerhouses -- the Bill Russell teams that won 11 titles in the ‘50s and ‘60s, the John Havlicek-Dave Cowens teams that won two in the ‘70s, and the Larry Bird teams that won three in the ‘80s.

Making it still more remarkable, the Celtics weren’t a rich team like the George Steinbrenner Yankees. Auerbach worked under 14 ownership groups, running a hand-to-mouth operation to survive while dominating the NBA.

“The ritual,” says the Boston Globe’s Bob Ryan, “was, owner buys team, owner kisses Red’s ring, owner steps aside, Red runs team, owner accepts trophy.”

Owners came and went so fast, they ran together: the brewery guy (Jack Waldron), the New York developer who tore down Ebbets Field to put up apartments (Marvin Kratter), the Rochester, N.Y., furniture maven (Harry Mangurian).

Some did stand out, such as Irv Levin, the California wheeler-dealer who stayed one season, exchanged franchises with Buffalo owner John Y. Brown, took what had been the Braves to San Diego and renamed them the Clippers.

Nevertheless, while Levin and Brown were about to play Monopoly with what he built, Auerbach was rebuilding it again, using the sixth pick in the 1978 draft on Bird, an Indiana State junior he’d have to wait a season for.

By Bird’s retirement in 1992, Auerbach was 74 and his presence was increasingly ceremonial. Not coincidentally, the glory days were increasingly distant.

“As time went on, some people paid more attention to Red than others,” says Ryan. “And eventually Red became less and less of a presence until the last couple of years, he was spending his time in Washington [D.C., where he had always made his home] and only coming up on rare occasions.”

The heavens seemed to part in 1997 with the arrival of Pitino, the Kentucky coach who demanded Auerbach’s title of president too.

In a preview of his tenure, Pitino was counting on drawing the first pick and getting Tim Duncan. Instead, he got No. 3, took Chauncey Billups and traded him at midseason.

Pitino left, exhausted and beaten, in 2001 with a 102-146 record.

In the really bad news, the Celtics only thought that was their low point.

The Truth or consequences

People growing up today have no recollection of when they were any good. The floor and the flags and all that? Nothing. Time goes on. There’s no reason now for anyone in this generation to understand what the Celtics were. Go watch ESPN Classic.

-- Bob Ryan

In the spring of 2003, a new ownership group headed by the Grousbeck family hired an old Celtics favorite, Danny Ainge, as head of basketball operations.

Ainge was determined to restore the tradition and had little use for Pitino’s three-point offense, which was still in place under Pitino’s former assistant, Jim O’Brien, who had taken the Celtics to the 2002 Eastern Conference finals.

Ainge traded their unapologetic 6-foot-10 three-point launcher, Antoine Walker. (Asked once why he took so many threes, Walker said, “Because there are no fours.”)

Trying to stay competitive while rebuilding, Ainge acquired and traded the notorious Ricky Davis and even brought Walker back for half a season.

“We had new ownership that was very excited,” Ainge said from Boston. “Nobody really wanted to take a step backward. We wanted to try to win and get younger and more athletic and get a little bit better that way and try to maintain that level of respectability.”

They made the playoffs in 2005, Rivers’ first season, but missed in his second. This season, happily or not, fate took matters out of their hands.

They were 10-14, just off a five-game winning streak that took them into first place in the Atlantic Division, when Pierce was lost, followed by Wally Szczerbiak, who has missed 21 games, and Tony Allen, who has missed 20.

With their losing streak climbing and a great draft class coming, they were accused daily on talk radio of tanking.

Happily or not, they didn’t have to tank.

Pierce, also known as “the Truth,” recently suggested trading their draft pick for a veteran, noting, “I’ve never seen a team grow just from draft picks.”

The league has waited years for Pierce to ask for a trade but it is still on hold. He just signed another extension, taking him through 2011, when he’ll be 33.

“By no means did we think we’d be in the situation we are today,” a somber Pierce said. “But I think in the near future they want to bring in some players that can help complement me probably a little better so we can turn this thing around.”

And if it takes two or three more seasons, can he hang in?

“No comment,” Pierce said.

They’re not out of this season yet and the rest of it may not be the most fun they’ve ever had.

“A couple years from now if things have changed, this was definitely worth it,” said Rivers, laughing. “Right now, you don’t see it that way.”

mark.heisler@latimes.com

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Slumping Celtics

Since Larry Bird retired, the Celtics have missed the playoffs eight of 14 seasons. They currently have the worst record in the NBA:

*--* SEASON W-L PCT PLAYOFFS 1992-93 48-34 585 Lost first round 1993-94 32-50 390 1994-95 35-47 427 Lost first round 1995-96 33-49 402 1996-97 15-67 183 1997-98 36-46 439 1998-99 19-31 380 1999-2000 35-47 427 2000-01 36-46 439 2001-02 49-33 598 Lost conference finals 2002-03 44-38 537 Lost conference semifinals 2003-04 36-46 439 Lost first round 2004-05 45-37 549 Lost first round 2005-06 33-49 402 2006-07 13-40 245

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Source: nba.com