"There are many words that come to mind after being around Rasheed Wallace a while. "Unapologetic" just seems to stand out.

This is the guy who wore a Philadelphia Flyers cap in the Garden after eliminating Cleveland last Thursday. He was wearing it again yesterday, bragging on the team from his hometown that beat the Bruins even though he didn't score a single goal in the series. (He did, however, have two assists in the Game 1 rout of Montreal Sunday.)

Sheed has his set of ethics, and beyond that he just doesn't care what anyone thinks, so don't even bother. He steadfastly refused to yield to public pressure and, you know, play during the regular season. And he's willing to put his wallet where his mouth is, spending a cool $100,000 in fines for sharing his opinions on the state of NBA officiating - and this doesn't include more than $20,000 in automatic hits for technicals.

But the figure on everyone's mind during the first 82 games (and, notably, Game 1 of the Cavaliers series) was the $5.8 million the Celtics were paying him. That the return on investment now is coming to light puts Wallace in the awkward position of being forgiven for something for which he never apologized.

If the message didn't get across against Cleveland, the reason for Rasheed Wallace in Green is loud and clear versus the Magic. Forget about his 13 points; the way he attacked Dwight Howard defensively in the series opener is testament to just how badly the Celtics needed another big man who could play."