CLEVELANDEven with all the games he has missed, it's hard to imagine that the Eastern Conference coaches won't select Rajon Rondo as one of its all-star reserves.
But even if he's chosen, Rondo - currently out with a right wrist injury - said that he still might not play.
"If they (coaches) select me and I don't play until Feb. 22 or games before that, there's no way I'm playing in the All-Star Game," Rondo told CSNNE.com prior to missing his seventh straight game.
Celtics coach Doc Rivers told reporters Tuesday morning that Rondo might return as early as Wednesday's game against Toronto, but a more likely target date would be Friday against the New York Knicks.
The latter seems more likely of the two, but even that seems a bit of a stretch.
Rondo has a sore wrist injury, the kind of injury that normally takes a couple of weeks to fully heal. He suffered the injury against the Toronto Raptors on Jan. 18.
The two-time all-star has been extremely limited in what he has been able to do since the injury.
"I haven't really dribbled," said Rondo, sitting in the Celtics locker room with a large bag of ice wrapped around the wrist - a treatment he says he has to do four times a day. "I've just been trying to run, to stay in shape. I haven't touched a ball, really."
And while he won't rule out a return to the lineup within the next few days - or hours - he does say that his return isn't contingent on him being totally back to his old self, health-wise.
"Regardless when I come back, it's not like I'm going to come back 100 percent," Rondo said. "I'm just trying to get as close as whenever I can function. If that's 50 percent, then I'll be back. Right now, I can't function."