Celtics forward Rasheed Wallace refuses to lay off referees.

He has already been fined $30,000 for criticizing referees this season and he lucked out on another occasion when the NBA didn't want to bring more attention to the claims of Tim Donaghy, the former official convicted of gambling.

Boston general manager Danny Ainge told Wallace that he should watch his statements, but the forward won't comply.

"Either way they're going to get me," Wallace said. "If I don't say nothing I'm going to get fined, and if I say something I'm going to get fined. So I might as well say something about what's on my mind, what I want to say. They're going to hit me up either way. I've been through that before in Portland. When I wasn't talking to the media they were fining me. But then when I did talk to the media they didn't like what I had to say, so they fined me some more. So I was like, 'Well, (expletive), if you're going to fine me I might as well say what the hell I want to say.' "

A reporter then suggested to Wallace that he could reply "no comment" to questions.

"Yeah, I could do that, but I think I have to be honest when I'm asked a question. And what happened to freedom of speech? You know, I say what's on my mind, speaking my freedom, and I get fined for it. It's a catch-22 with that (expletive), man.

"See, they think they can control people with money. Everybody don't live like that. That's how they live up there in that office. They think, 'Oh, I'm going to hit him in the pocket. That's where it will hurt.' No, it don't hurt me. I didn't have it growing up, so, I mean, either way it don't hurt me. As long as my family's cool, I'm cool. It ain't hurting my family. I make sure of that."