While Red Sox fans are holding their breath in hopes that the D-Mat deal will get done before tomorrow night's midnight deadline, Celtics fans last night should have been holding their breath in hopes Allen Iverson didn't come to Boston.

Buzz? The Celts feel they need to bring A.I. to Beantown in order to create buzz?

They'd have been better off telling the Sixers to buzz off.

To, as they say in Philly, fuhgeddaboutit.

There is only one reason a team should want Iverson. That is, if it felt he was the missing piece in an otherwise championship-caliber lineup. And, even in that case, it had better be a veteran team, one that could cope with all of Iverson's antics, his disdain for such mundane matters as practices, all his foolishness and self-centeredness, both on and off the court.

But Iverson never won a championship in 10 seasons with the Sixers, nor did he win one in his two years at Georgetown, so taking him in hopes he'll take your team to a title is as shaky a proposition as having Shaq at the free-throw line, shooting 1-and-1, with one second on the clock and your team down two.

Why the Celts expressed an interest in Iverson is mildly puzzling and extremely disappointing.

What it shows, unfortunately, is how desperate this once-proud franchise has become. And how clueless.

For the last couple of years, GM Danny Ainge has asked Boston fans to be patient while he acquired young talent that would mature into a championship team.

Now, after seeing how willing he is to scrap that rebuilding plan and bring in an aging point guard whose 31-year-old body is showing significant wear-and-tear after a decade in the NBA, should Celtics fans continue to have confidence that the young players Ainge has been touting, but now is talking about dumping, can get the job done?

The names bandied about as being on the trading block in Boston were the likes of Al Jefferson, Delonte West and Sebastian Telfair, who, along with Ryan Gomes and Gerald Green, were supposed to be Boston's future.

We may not be very good now, said the Celts, but just wait a year or two 'til these guys grow up. (The assumption being, of course, that the youngsters would grow up before star forward Paul Pierce grew too old.)

Speaking of Pierce, he's another reason the acquisition of Iverson is a ridiculous proposition. Yes, the NBA is going back to the old leather ball in the New Year, but, unless David Stern is going to allow two balls in play at the same time, that would leave Iverson or Pierce without one, rendering one of them frustrated and unhappy.

It's one thing to trade away young talent to try to win a title, to make a deal for the short-term because the GM and coach feel they're just a player or two away from being a championship team. The Red Sox have operated for years on this basis, with less than overwhelming success -- Jeff Bagwell for Larry Andersen, Freddy Sanchez for Jeff Suppan, and Cla Meredith for Doug Mirabelli, to name just a few such trades.

But to talk about trading the future for a player whose best games are in his past -- especially a high-maintenance player like Iverson, who flouts team rules and feels the franchise should revolve around him, who likes to hang in Atlantic City, who pursues women as aggressively as he drives the lane -- is beyond foolish for a team like the Celtics, who might be better in the short term with A.I., but surely would suffer in the long run.

And that, really, is what's so disturbing about the idea of Iverson coming to Boston.

It shows that the guy in charge is in panic mode, that's he's given up on his rebuilding plans, that he obviously feels the young players he's brought in aren't progressing fast enough -- or just plain aren't good enough.

Ainge and the owners want more people to pay attention to the Celtics? They want more buzz about the team in Boston?

Doing something stupid will get people talking about you. But it won't get them to come to your games. And it certainly won't get that elusive 17th championship banner hung in the rafters.

jdonalds@projo.com / (401) 277-7340