Ahh, Donald Sterling. The most overtly racist and blatantly cheap NBA owner is at it again. This time, he is heckling his own player from courtside. (Yahoo!)

It’s not uncommon to hear Los Angeles Clippers fans heckle Baron Davis. Of late, however, the jeers directed at the team’s struggling point guard are coming from a far more surprising source: The man paying Davis, Clippers owner Donald Sterling.

Sterling has expressed his displeasure about Davis’ play by taunting him from his courtside seat at Clippers’ home games, several sources told Yahoo! Sports. Among Sterling’s verbal barbs:

– “Why are you in the game?”

– “Why did you take that shot?”

– “You’re out of shape!”

While Sterling has also taunted other Clippers players since the middle of last season, none have received it worse than Davis, the sources said. …

“There’s nothing I can say,” Davis said of Sterling’s taunts. “I have no comment on that. You just get to this point where it’s a fight every day. It’s a fight. You’re fighting unnecessary battles. I’m fighting unnecessary battles.

“It’s frustrating because I know and my teammates know I’m capable of getting it done, even dudes on the other team. It’s frustrating.”

I COULD discuss how Sterling is an asshole. How no sane owner would shout insults at a player. How I hope Blake Griffin takes Sterling into The Octagon and the two have a no-holds-barred brawl.

But no. You guys already know all that jazz. What I want to talk about is how brutally unproductive it is for an owner to scream insults at his own player.

Imagine for a second you’re at work, in your office. You’re a lawyer, and you’re trying to focus on an upcoming case. You are pouring over files upon files of previous litigation, and your trial is quickly approaching. With the best of focus, the task is difficult. But then your boss pulls up a seat in your office and makes himself comfortable. He is eating nachos as he begins his personal attack.

“You’re a fat ass!” he shouts. “You lazy son of a bitch!”

You wonder why he’s interrupting your work. He’s your boss, and it’s confusing. But he does this every day, so you don’t even begin to respond.

“Why do you even bother coming into the office?” He screams, as nacho crumbs spew out of his mouth. “You aren’t going to win this case, you stupid asshole!”

You try to block his insults out of your brain, but even so it’s difficult. This man is in your office, berating your work. You try to pay him no mind, but his loud, obnoxious words divert your attention ever so slightly.

With your focus weaning, you accidentally pick up the wrong file. Immediately you think, Oh, no. Now I’m going to get an earful.

“Why?” begins the explosion. “Why the hell are you picking up that file? The information you need is in the other one, you stupid bastard!”

You return to work without a response, but you are still bothered. This scumbag is in your office, chastising you at every opportunity. You don’t want to let him affect you, and you do your best not to lose your cool. But his criticisms never stop. Before long, you can barely think about the case you are supposed to be preparing for.

The trial comes, and you are not as ready as you should be. It is an open-and-shut case, and you should be on the winning side. But you argue it poorly, partially because your boss kept you from prepping correctly. His actions stopped you from producing as you should have, and the thing is, he’s the owner. He’s the one person most affected by your fuck-up. You are being paid a salary, so you are unaffected by any extra winnings. But he stands to reap the benefits if you win and make more money. Sadly, he cannot grasp how his actions affect you. He does not understand he helped put you in a situation to fail.

“See,” he tells you, after you lose the case. “I knew you were going to fuck this up.”

Now, I’m not comparing Baron Davis to a lawyer, and I’m not comparing playing basketball to practicing law. Reading case briefs is quite different than shooting jumpers. Heckling is common in the NBA, and players hear jeers every night. Hell, some players even feed off the animosity. But hearing boos from opposing fans is one thing; hearing them from your own boss is quite another. And the real-life equivalent to Sterling’s behavior would actually be your boss, in your office, hurling insults at you while you try to work.

We tend to think of NBA players as something different than humans. We don’t believe their emotions should be affected by hatred thrown their way. But on some level, this has to have some effect on Baron Davis’ play, and the Clippers’ play.

Can somebody please set up that no-holds-barred match, ASAP?

1. Ray Allen on Shaq: “Just watching him and being around him, he’s still got a lot of passion for the game of basketball. The one thing I learned early is to get out of his way. He’s moving around well. He’s still getting up and blocking shots. I expect big things out of him. I think we’re going to ask him to do a lot for us.” All I ask is for a little effort — just a little — defending pick-and-rolls.
2. Ray on the team’s mentality going into training camp: “We kind of know what we’re made of as a team and as individuals. Now, when we talk about urgency, right now for us it’s preparation, commitment to the process.”That urgency will take shape as we get deeper into the season,” Allen said. “Right now, it’s a building process. Nothing’s guaranteed. We can’t come into this thinking that it’s going to make itself, it’s going to shape itself.”
3. Rajon Rondo, you know how I know you’re gay? Shaq kissed you on the cheek and you feigned breathlessness.
4. If Doc Rivers had left, said Paul Pierce, “we probably would have seen rebuilding here.” Thank you, lord, for blessing us with Doc’s return. Rebuilding is the mother of suck.
5. Semih Erden: “It was my dream to play with Shaq one day.”
6. Shaq interviewed with WEEI, saying he would have played for the Celtics for free if he had to. While discussing his season with the Cavs, Shaq revealed “we just faced a team that everybody counted out all year. You can never count out Mr. Garnett or The Truth, because those two guys, when they get mad, they’re unstoppable.”
7. One of these days I’m going to stop linking to Paul Pierce’s uninteresting blog. The only reason I do now is that Pierce was cut from his high school’s varsity team during his sophomore year. You know what that means? I was a better high school player than Pierce. Or something like that.
8. Nate Robinson, you are a clown.
9. A breakdown of Ray Allen’s free throw form. According to CelticsBlog, he “came into camp weighing around 206 lbs. Said he ran more this offseason than he ever has and is in excellent shape.”
10. Shaq spent time with some locals in Salem. I’m awed by any athlete who’s so gracious in speaking to fans. I went to a dinner last night and Boston College football star Mark Herzlich was there, giving his time to anyone but himself. I swear he introduced himself to every person there, shook hands with everyone, signed footballs until his wrist hurt, and had absolutely zero time alone or with his girlfriend. Herzlich’s grace was beyond impressive, and he’s only a college player for BC! I’m sure Shaq’s fans are twenty times as relentless, every single day of the year. That Shaq still smiles and enjoys his fans is a testament to his character.
11. Surprise, surprise! Baron Davis is at least slightly out of shape.

Got a tip? An article you think should be included? Send an email to jayking@celticstown.com or hit me up on Twitter @CelticsTown.

Draft Express’s Jonathan Givony was invited to Impact Basketball in Las Vegas, where a number of NBA players work out. While there, he watched a pickup game that included Jermaine O’Neal, Tayshaun Prince, Baron Davis, Tyronn Lue and our dear friend Patrick O’Bryant, among others.

Givony was impressed with Jermaine O’Neal’s conditioning.

Since the C’s signed Shaq, Jermaine O’Neal has been the forgotten man. He shouldn’t be: the man was a hell of an addition.

By the way, there’s no way Sheed played pickup once last summer. No way.

So I was being a huge nerd and reading every possible thing I can about basketball (which, quite frankly, is pretty much what I do 12 hours of every day) when I came across the funniest paragraph I’ve read in at least a month or so (NBA Fanhouse):

The Drew League in the heart of Watts is the longest, and most competitive, running summer league in the world, going strong for over 30 years. It’s also where NBA stars like Nick Young, Baron Davis, Paul Pierce, Bobby Brown, Gabe Pruitt and many others show up to display their skills.

It’s hilarious how Pruitt, a supposed NBA star, played in the D-League this season and averaged only 11 points per game. I think I’m probably an NBA star, too, because I scored 17 a game in intramural basketball.

Anyway, Demar DeRozan recently scored 46 points in a Drew League game. I was very impressed until I realized he was playing “NBA stars” Bobby Brown, Nick Young and Gabe Pruitt.

If you want to learn more about the Drew League or hear about former NBA star (get it?) Tyronn Lue “getting Baptized” (aka truly embarrassed) during his one trip to the league, watch the following video. I can’t say I really enjoyed it myself, though.

The Celtics are a sinking ship. I'll never let go, Jack. (Oops, I let go.)

Nothing the Celtics can do tonight against the Detroit Pistons will ease my doubts. They’ve fallen, and it seems like they can’t get up. I’ve come to terms with it, now, finally.

The Celtics are down for the count.

After yesterday’s loss to the Cavaliers, it’s as plain and simple as Tim Duncan’s game. The Celtics aren’t going to be a contender, not this year. They don’t have what it takes to win a championship, or even come close. The truly elite teams have lapped them, left them behind like Zydrunas Ilgauskas in a suicide. This year just isn’t the year.

It’s sad, too, because everything started out so peachy. The Celtics were 6-0, and smacking everyone around like this was the WWE. Six games into the season, I was getting fitted for my NBA championship t-shirt. The Celtics had dreams of 72 wins, and their play showed why. Why stop at 72, I thought? Let’s get 75 or 77. The Celtics were hungry, talented, and driven. This year was going to be great.

By the time Christmas rolled around, the Celtics were 23-5, and throttled the Orlando Magic without Paul Pierce in front of a national television audience. Sitting in front of my T.V., eating my aunts’ Christmas feast, I had just about abandoned hope of 72 wins, but what did it matter? After undressing the Magic on Christmas, the Celtics were clearly the class of the East. I couldn’t wait for a rematch with the Lakers in the finals.

Two days after Christmas, Baron Davis hit a buzzer-beater to send the Celtics to a heart-wrenching defeat. Who cares?, I thought. It was a normal letdown after owning the Magic so thoroughly in the previous game. But that Clippers game was the first of many like it — disappointing, uneven efforts that brought disappointing, uneven results.

Looking back on it, Davis’ game-winner was the shot that put a hole in the Celtics’ ship. They sprung a leak that day, and water’s been spilling into the vessel ever since. The Celtics’ sinking has been slow, marred by injuries, inconsistency and boredom, but it’s undeniable. With a record against the league’s elite more befitting the New Jersey Nets, and a sub-.500 record for their past 37 games, the Celtics aren’t a great team anymore. Hell, they’re barely even good.

Win or lose tonight in Detroit, the sinking has already taken place. It’s possible that the Celtics could right the ship and plug the leaking hole in time for the playoffs, but it would be almost unprecedented. As Zach Lowe notes, only three champions in NBA history have gone through dry spells as long as the current Celtics’ stretch. Two of them (the ’78 Bullets and ’75 Warriors) played in very mediocre eras, and another (the ’94 Rockets) experienced an injury-riddled regular season and traded Otis Thorpe for Clyde “The Glide” Drexler in the middle of February. With The Glide — still averaging almost 22 ppg — in tow, the playoff Rockets were a very different team than the one that suffered through a 47-35 regular season.

The Celtics aren’t playing in a mediocre era, and nobody besides perhaps Isiah Thomas would argue that Nate Robinson and Michael Finley will play a Drexler-like role to help lead them to a championship. The season appears over, lost a long time ago and never to be discovered. Championship teams don’t sleepwalk through almost half their schedule, and they don’t get beat down in every showdown with the NBA’s top teams.

It’s been hard to give up on this season, because this team still possesses talent capable of stringing a championship run together, and I doubt I’ll ever entirely let go of hope. But consider this column as my waving of the white flag.

The NBA is blowing the Celtics out right now, and Gino is up on the scoreboard, swiveling his hips and mocking Boston while the NBA’s crowd goes wild. The NBA is lighting up Red Auerbach’s victory cigar, and the Celtics can do nothing but sit on the bench with a towel over their heads, deflated and depressed.

The Cavaliers’ game was the final wave that pushed the Celtics all the way under, but they’ve been on the way down for some time now.

R.I.P.

The Celtics have gotten rid of their morning walkthrough, but that doesn’t mean we have to. Here are a few Celtics links, and maybe even an NBA link or two, to help wake you up and get you focused for the day.

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “After making the first half look as rocky as imaginable with injuries, inconsistency, signs of dissension, and now, incessant trade rumors, the Celtics come out of the break with a West Coast trip that starts tonight in Sacramento and then takes them to Los Angeles to face the Lakers, then Portland, and Denver. ‘It’s a big trip . . . it’s one of the biggest trips of the year,’ Pierce said. ‘It’s a chance for us to start new. Put the first half behind us, go out there against some quality teams and try to make a statement. A lot of people are kind of writing us off and I would, too, with the way we played. We’ve just got to go out there and prove to ourselves and everybody else what type of team we are.’”

A. Sherrod Blakely, CSNNE – “All season, [Ray] Allen has maintained that he wants to be a Celtic for the remainder of this season and beyond. But he’s wise enough to know that his desire may not necessarily be enough to stay in Boston if the C’s believe they can improve their chances at a title by trading him. ‘Organizationally, we’re lucky to be part of an organization that wants to win,’ Allen said. ‘From that aspect, winning a championship is not guaranteed. That’s why we’re all fortunate to be here. If that changes with me, I have to move on and figure out the best way that I can help myself.’”

A. Sherrod Blakely, CSNNE – “‘We just have to do a better job of being on the same page,’ said C’s guard Eddie House. ‘Part of that has to do with not having everybody healthy. We’ve had guys out hurt, guys coming back and then guys who were playing not playing as much. The bottom line, we just have to get better, that’s all.’ And that starts with winning games, which in turns creates some much-needed momentum heading toward the end of the season and into the playoffs. ‘Right now, every team is coming out of the break, they know it’s not a lot of games left; playoff positioning is starting every night, and you want to get your rhythm going into the playoffs,’ said Celtics head coach Doc Rivers. ‘Whoever is going to be in the playoffs, you better start to get it going now.’”

Gary Washburn, Boston Globe – “Teams were intimidated by the Celtics in the first six weeks, but a 92-90 loss to the Clippers Dec. 27 in Los Angeles changed the course of the season. The Celtics haven’t been the same since Baron Davis’s buzzer-beating jumper defeated them that night. They began showing the characteristics that have plagued them the past two months. They were unable to put away an inferior team. They had several defensive breakdowns, including leaving Rasual Butler, one of the league’s most scary 3-point shooters, for a late tying shot in that loss.”

Have a link I might want to look at? Send it my way by email (jayking@celticstown.com) or Twitter.