BOSTON – As Celtics rookie Jaylen Brown takes the weekend to decide whether he wants to accept an invitation to participate in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest, locker room neighbor Gerald Green pointed to himself as a cautionary tale about the pitfalls that go with the modest prestige that comes with competing in the event.

Green was in his second NBA season fresh out of high school when he won the contest in 2007. He spent weeks after practice working on dunks when he could have been working on his shot or his understanding of defense. He basked in the spotlight glory in Las Vegas when he dunked over teammate Paul Pierce during a winning performance.

He got a lot of the attention he sought. But he grew to realize it was more the attention of a basketball carnival sideshow than as a fledgling future star in the league.

Three years later, he was out of the league entirely.

“You get in the dunk contest and they kind of label you as ‘just this, or just that,’” Green said. “I think for him it’s something that if he wants to do it, he should do it. If it’s kind of up in the air, I don’t think he should do it.

“Doing the dunk contest is not important. It’s something that you either dreamed about as a little kid, or you want to go out there and get a little more recognition. But other than that, once it’s over, it’s over. It’s nothing you can really hold onto.

"Believe me, I know from experience.”

Brown said prior to Friday’s practice that the NBA had asked him to participate and gave him a few days to decide whether he wanted to or not. He said prior to Saturday’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers he had yet to make that decision.

His reasoning for possibly taking a pass was that he didn’t want to do anything in preparation that would hinder his ability to help the Celtics in their push for a top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

“It may seem foolish,” he said. “All those dunks and stuff, they look cool. But it takes a toll on your body, for sure. I want to put myself in the best position to help this team. The dunk contest - it may or may not take from that."

The Celtics were in a much different spot in 2007 as they hurtled toward the third-worst record in the NBA. Still, for Green, not only did the contest take away from his focus on becoming a better all-around basketball player, he believes it took away from how others around the league saw him as a player.

“It was something I always dreamed about,” he said. “I took it seriously because I dreamed about it when I was little. Maybe not everybody has those same dreams I had.

“But at the end of the day, if I had to do it again, I don’t think I would because it labeled me as just a dunker my whole career when I was way more than that.”

Bradley missing

The Celtics were without starting guard Avery Bradley for the sixth time in the last seven games on Saturday due to tightness in his right Achilles.

It may be few more games before they get him back.

“I don’t anticipate Avery this week at all,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. “I think that he’s still got some soreness. You know, obviously, we’re concerned about the long-term impact of a sore Achilles - what means on that foot, but also what it means when you compensate off of it. He’ll be back when he’s ready, but I still think he’s a little bit away.

“He’s doing all the treatment and everything else, but I think that’s he’s probably still a couple of games away, at the very least. But, again, no structural damage. There’s nothing torn or anything like that. It’s just a strained Achilles, and very, very sore.”

The Celtics were also without Jonas Jerebko and Demetrius Jackson on Saturday due to the illness that has swept through the team over the past month. Tyler Zeller remained out with a recurrence of symptoms from a sinus and middle-ear infection that developed three weeks ago.

“You’ve just got to have a next-man-up mentality,” Green said. “Obviously, man, you know we want those guys back as quick as possible. But as of right now guys have just got to be ready to play.”