Who wants to win this division?

From the moment the Philadelphia 76ers made it known they would try to trade Allen Iverson, the Boston Celtics emerged as a frequently rumored destination.

Every time Knicks coach Isiah Thomas was asked, he said the team wasn’t interested and would stick with its young players.

But with the Atlantic Division so bad, why wouldn’t one of its teams look for a deal?

With every team below .500, all five are tightly bunched with more than a quarter of the season complete. A trade for a player such as Iverson might be all it takes to break away.

“You know somebody in our division is going to make a move,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “It doesn’t have to be that move. They’re going to make a move, and you look at all the teams – the Knicks, us, Toronto – everyone in our division, they’re a move away from being a better team and making a run.”

Rivers likened the situation to Boston’s acquisition of Antoine Walker in February 2005. The Celtics were 27-28 at the time, then won 11 of 12 en route to the division title.

“All of a sudden, we ran away with it, from one move,” Rivers said. “And I think our division is set up that way, but it’s a lot of teams that need one move. Back then, it’s one or two could make a move to make the jump. Now almost every team in our division, they’re one move away from making a run.”

Don’t expect the Knicks to try that route.

Thomas and owner James Dolan say the Knicks are rebuilding, and Thomas has said he doesn’t want to trade his young players. He has vowed to stick with his plan – even if a move to land a star player could help him win enough games to save his job.

“They said rebuilding was hard, and it was going to take a while,” Thomas said. “In the 2 1/2 years that we’ve gone through to get all this stuff, I’m not about to just turn around and give it away. We’ll stay the course.”

On the ball

When the NBA announced this week it was taking its microfiber composite ball out of play and returning to the old leather one on Jan. 1, it was easy to consider it a loss for NBA commissioner David Stern.

He disagreed.

“It’s really been good for my image because it shows that I’m not infallible or claiming to be,” Stern said Thursday night while visiting Charlotte. “It’s very good.”

Players were angry with Stern for introducing the new ball without their input, and the players association filed an unfair labor practice charge against the league.

“We made a mistake in terms of consulting with our players,” Stern said. “We’re going back, and we’re going to do it right.”

Now, the league is asking players if they would be interested in helping to determine what kind of ball they will use next season.

That still might include a synthetic ball.

“We think we can find a better ball altogether, because they’re used to playing with synthetic in high school and college,” Stern said. “This particular ball is being used in our developmental league and in the Chinese League and the Japanese League and various places.

“But if our players are unhappy with it, I’m unhappy with it, and we’re going to find a better ball. And we’re going to work together.”

Nets lose Krstic for season

New Jersey Nets center Nenad Krstic will miss the rest of the season because of a torn knee ligament.

The 7-footer was hurt during the third quarter of Friday night’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers. The team announced Saturday he had a tear of his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

Lending a hand

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has joined a number of NBA stars to help raise funds for prostate cancer research. The NBA’s career scoring leader already lent a hand to another cause this season: the development of the Lakers’ Kwame Brown and Andrew Bynum.

The improvement of the two young centers has played a major role in the Lakers’ strong start.

“It’s kind of like a process you go through,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “You have to work on some of their bad habits and then try to teach them some things that they can use that will work for them.”

Abdul-Jabbar is in his second season as a special assistant coach with his former team, focusing most of his attention on the Lakers’ big men.

Good coaching might have been all Brown needed. The first high school player drafted No. 1 overall, he had four mostly miserable seasons in Washington before arriving in Los Angeles. But he has shot better than 50 percent in both seasons with the Lakers while providing rebounding and toughness in the paint.

Bynum also made the jump from high school, becoming the youngest player drafted and the youngest to appear in an NBA game at 18 years, 6 days. He averaged 1.6 points and 1.7 rebounds last season, and it didn’t seem the Lakers would get much from him this season.

But Bynum was forced to start when Brown and Chris Mihm were injured at the beginning of the season and has shown rapid improvement. He was averaging 7.1 points and 5.4 boards while shooting 56.7 percent through 22 games.

Abdul-Jabbar, a New York native, was back in his hometown this week to help promote the NBA’s partnership with the Prostate Cancer Foundation. He’s one of 18 current or former players featured on a wristband featuring the player’s name, signature, uniform number and team logo.

LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Steve Nash are among other players participating. The wristbands sell for $3.