The oft-highlighted run of Duke University’s No. 1 recruit Austin Rivers — son of Celtics head coach Doc Rivers — finally came to an end at the Greater NC Pro-Am (aka, “Rucker of the South”), but not before he entered a few more highlights into the fray. First, he dunked on former Celtics forward Rasheed Wallace ^[3]. Then, he made NC State’s Lorenzo Brown look ridiculous ^[4]. Now? Austin just makes everyone look silly. I mean, the two crossover spin moves in the embedded video are absurd.

All of which made me wonder: Why didn’t the Celtics just spend the No. 55 second-round pick they used to select E’Twaun Moore on Austin Rivers, wait for him to play one season at Duke and sign him in 2012 — a la Larry Bird in 1978? Well, it turns out they couldn’t. That’s no fun. Under the now expired collective bargaining agreement, there are two scenarios under which the Celtics could land Austin Rivers:

• 1) Austin declares himself eligible for the 2012 NBA draft, the Celtics package their own first-round pick and the Clippers top-10 protected pick they got in the Kendrick Perkins trade to move into the lottery and hope beyond hope he falls somewhere in the 5-10 range.
• 2) He declares himself eligible next year, gets drafted, refuses to sign, re-enters the 2013 draft, gets drafted again, refuses to sign again, becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2014 and signs with the Celtics.

All insanely hypothetical, especially considering the Rutgers men’s basketball coach Mike Rice tweeted ^[5] on Thursday, “I keep hearing NBA owners want to adopt same rule as NFL. Players will have to wait 3 yrs to enter the draft. Certainly would be interesting.” That would mean Austin couldn’t declare NBA eligibility until the 2014 draft.

At that point, who knows where this aging Celtics team will be? Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen — both 38 years old at that point — could long be retired. All we know about the 2014-15 season is that Rajon Rondo will be the point guard, and Doc Rivers will be the head coach. With any luck (check that: With a crapload of luck), the Celtics could land his son after all. These are the things you ponder during the NBA lockout.