Take, for instance, the Red Sox and their so-called Green Monster Seats. Or, as I like to call them, Overpriced, Obstructed-View Bleacher Seats.

Outrage.

Here's some more outage: When players do not treat their league's All-Star Game with respect. Look, if you're hurt, you're hurt. If you're not hurt, and you are chosen to play in an All-Star Game, be a gentleman and go.

Which brings us to Celtics guard Ray Allen, a 12-year NBA veteran who, one might guess, would probably choose resting his ankles for a couple of days over playing in the All-Star Game.

But no.

``I've never really understood guys who've said they didn't want to go, because it's an honor,'' Allen said last night before the Celtics faced the Sacramento Kings at the Garden. ``It's a privilege, not a right.

``I remember the first year I was chosen,'' he said. ``That feeling will always be in my mind. Being one of the best is always in my camp.''

Does he want to get chosen to play in next month's All-Star Game?

``Of course,'' he said, and then he said it again.

``Of course.''

A year ago, Allen made plans to take his wife to Mexico after not being chosen to play in the All-Star Game. When he was a late addition to the Eastern Conference roster as a replacement for injured Washington Wizards forward Caron Butler, Allen canceled the trip and caught the next flight to All-Star central in New Orleans.

Oh, and he scored 28 points - 14 of them in the fourth quarter - to help lead the East to a 134-128 victory.

``But put it this way,'' he said. ``I don't let the honor, or the lack of honor, decide for me who I am or what I mean to this team, of what this team means to me.''

Fair enough. But the NBA will announce today the names of those reserves who will accompany the elected starters to the U.S. Airways Center in Phoenix for the Feb. 15 All-Star Game. Will Allen be one of the coaches' choices, joining teammate and East starter Kevin Garnett? How about Paul Pierce?

Do you think Rajon Rondo has a shot to make some All-Star shots? How cool would that be?

Coach Doc Rivers last night verbalized what plenty of Celts fans have been thinking when he said, ``It'd be nice if four of our guys made it. I think three will definitely make it, Paul, Ray and Kevin. And it would be nice if Rondo made it too. I'd like that.''

Rivers knows how the game is played. He knows rival coaches will wink at him and say, sure, they'll vote for your guys and then do no such thing. He admits he sometimes does the same thing.

In other words, anything can happen. So wait. And, as always, we hope the guys who make it have the smarts to understand what Ray Allen understood years ago.

- sbuckley@bostonherald.com