Fortunately, bounce didn't go their way

"No one was more devastated than I was," Grousbeck said last night at halftime of the Celtics' 111-82 pummeling of the still-Seattle SuperSonics. "I had worn my lucky suit and everything. I was miserable."

So there was no Kevin Durant in Boston. No Greg Oden, either. And then Danny Ainge made the curious decision to trade the disappointing pick for an aging All-Star guard who was coming off double-ankle surgery.

Here we are almost 10 months later and the Celtics are an NBA-best 51-12 with a 10-game winning streak (the team's first since 1986) and a legitimate shot at Flag No. 17. It's Boston's best team since Larry Bird retired and it's all because the Celtics didn't get Kevin Durant last spring.

If the Celtics and their fans had gotten their wish in Secaucus that night, last night's starting lineup against Seattle probably would have been Durant, Paul Pierce, Al Jefferson, Kendrick Perkins, and Rajon Rondo. And the Celtics probably would have 30-35 wins. There would be a lot of talk about the future, but no real hopes for a long playoff run in the spring of 2008.

"We probably wouldn't have 50 wins by now, I can tell you that," said Boston coach Doc Rivers. "But we would have a pretty good future."

We heard much too much about future in the two-decade drought that plagued this storied franchise after the last crown was won in 1986. Fans were ready for a switch to the George Allen "future is now" mind-set and that's what happened when Ainge went after Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. The Celtics have since added fossils James Posey, P.J. Brown, and Sam Cassell.

No country for old men? Tell that to the folks who are planning on a memory lane trip to the Finals against the Lakers in June.

Durant was predictably unimpressed by all of the above. The (soon-to-be-named) NBA Rookie of the Year is all of 19 years old and it's not his job to empathize with a New England fan constituency that was banking on his services for the next 10 or 15 years. He knew Boston was a possibility when he watched the lottery, but that dream died May 22 and Durant quickly adjusted to life in the coffee capital of the USA.