FanHouse Celtics

When the Celtics signed Rasheed Wallace over the summer as their big offseason acquisition, they may have thought they were getting a big man who would stretch the floor with his three-point shooting, and one who would force the centers on the other contenders to come out of the paint to try and stop him.

But 13 games into the Sheed experiment in Boston, Wallace's three-point shooting has hurt his new team far more than it has helped them. And Friday night's 0-for-8 performance from beyond the arc?

That one was so bad, it made history.

The Atlanta Hawks find themselves at the top of our rankings this week, thanks to a five-game winning streak against some strong competition -- a gritty overtime win over the Blazers and a road win in Boston were both impressive. Now, let's see if they can avoid the top-spot-jinx on Wednesday night, when they'll host Miami in a rematch of last year's first round playoff series. As for the other 29 teams? Read on to see how they stacked up.

Kevin Garnett has a reputation as a villain on the basketball court, at least to those wearing the uniform of the team he's going up against that particular night. While he's sometimes been criticized for taking things too far, It's understandable to a point, because in the heat of the game, it's not exactly to your advantage to play well with others.

But what about off the court?

When there's no game, the cameras aren't rolling, and no one else is around, that's when a person's true self is exposed, good or bad. And this little story about how Garnett treated a couple of the Pacers' rookies over the summer shows that his off-the-court persona might be just as rough as the one we're accustomed to seeing on it.

I wrote in September that perhaps there would be no worthy center to start for the West in the All-Star Game.

But this isn't the way I want to see that solved. Do it on the court, not with the ballot.

When the All-Star ballot came out Tuesday, Phoenix power forward Amar'e Stoudemire strangely was listed as a center. Yes, Stoudemire has played center before, but he's started all eight games for Suns this season at power forward, with Channing Frye being the starting center.

It is true the ballot, which was selected by six media members from around the country, had to be decided upon before the season began in order to provide time for printing. But it has been apparent since at least September that Frye would Phoenix's starting center, with Stoudemire at power forward.

We're just eight games into the season, but there's no doubt who the surprise team is at this point. The Phoenix Suns are off to a 7-1 start, and have road wins over two of the three remaining one-loss teams. They've done it with Steve Nash leading the league in assists at almost 13 per game, and with the team leading the league in three-point shooting at a ridiculous 47 percent. But all of that only got the Suns to No. 2 in this week's rankings -- read on to see who's on top.

We're just a week into the season, so don't get mad if your team isn't where you might have expected. It's just that if we go by what we've actually seen, as opposed to what's been predicted, then this is for the most part where teams should fall based on their early performances. But if you're offended by the spot your favorite team holds, fear not: they likely have 79 regular season games remaining to right the ship.

Sam Jones won 10 NBA championships, more than anyone in history except for Bill Russell. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1984. He was named one of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players in 1996. He scored more than 15,000 points in his 12 seasons with the Boston Celtics (1957-69), carving a reputation as one of the greatest clutch shooters -- and winners -- that the league has ever seen.

Yet despite his legendary career, he can walk through a shopping mall or a downtown hotel lobby today without being recognized, arguably the most under-exposed great in basketball history.

Jones, 76, sat down with FanHouse earlier this week to discuss a variety of topics, ranging from his strange disconnect with the franchise he represented so well, to the racism that drove him out of coaching in the early '70s, to his sometimes unflattering view of today's NBA stars.

His opinions might surprise you.

There were two lingering questions for the Celtics coming into this, a season where they are widely expected to contend for a championship. The first was the status of Kevin Garnett's knee which appears to be just fine. You can notice a very slight hobble by Garnett after an ill-advised dunk, but that could just be reverberations from the accompanying unnecessary screaming.

The other was the contract status of Rajon Rondo, who was working on an extension to avoid entering restricted free agency by remaining with the Celtics. Talks had slowed, and Rondo was making comments to the effect that it was possible he wouldn't end up in Boston.

Bad news for the rest of the league: he will end up in Boston. Early Monday after a fortunate extension from the league for all teams in negotiations, the Celtics and Rondo reached an agreement on a 5-year, $55 million extension, according to ESPN.