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Robb: Leon Powe Reminder Of What Cetlics Are Building Toward

BOSTON – On a Friday night when the Boston Celtics lost to one of the worst teams assembled in NBA history, a flashback to the better days of The Big Three era was needed in the TD Garden.

While many outsiders primarily connect names like Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Kendrick Perkins to Boston's 2008 NBA Title, Leon Powe is a guy that proved to be a crucial piece of that group. His 21 points in 15 minutes of action off the bench helped carried Boston to a Game 2 NBA Finals win against the Lakers, etching his rightful place as a memorable player in Boston sports history.

Powe embraced that role Friday afternoon at Fenway Park, serving as a representative of the Celtics 2008 championship team, alongside other New England champions like Tedy Bruschi and Troy Brown during the Red Sox opening day ceremonies.

The former Celtic reflected on the experience while attending the Celtics game on Friday night.

"It feels good," Powe said of being back in Boston. "It feels like home and it is home to me. I love these people here, the Boston people, and I know they love me and the hard work I put in to try help to bring this team a championship with me and my teammates. It's been real fun, it's been real fun coming back."

The 30-year-old also felt honored to be representing a historic Celtic team.

"I wanted to represent my teammates and represent the Celtics organization well. I felt I did that. And just representing the victims from the marathon and talking to them, it was a blessing. Their spirits is up and everything is going good. So I was happy today, everything went well," Powe said.

Powe played his last season with the Celtics during the 2008-09 season before tearing his ACL during a playoff series against Chicago. Cleveland signed him to a contract the following season, cutting his tenure with Boston short, but the big man holds no ill will from his departure. Instead, he's moved on to a new stage of his life, focusing on business and potentially acquiring an NBA franchise after last playing during the 2010-11 season.

"You know my legs. I wasn't able to explode like I wanted to," Powe said of his knee issues. "Before I do anything further, I have to go get checked out by one of my doctors. I know that's behind me because injuries do happen. My body could be like, 'Oh, OK, now you're nicely healed, and you can do some good things out there' but right now, it's on the back-burner, just trying to focus on the business side of stuff and I've been working on my company and working on trying to put together an ownership group, an investment group to own an NBA team. I've been doing research, I've got a couple groups with me right now. But I want to be majority owner as far as ownership, so I'm trying to make sure my side is good, too."

As Powe continues to enjoy life beyond basketball, the former champion served as a welcome reminder to fans last night of what this 2013-14 Celtics team is building toward: a return to greatness.

Brian Robb covers the Celtics for CBS Boston and contributes to NBA.com, among other media outlets. You can follow him on Twitter @CelticsHub.

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