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Unfortunately, the NBA is a business.
We received the latest evidence yesterday, when the Boston Celtics declined to tender a qualifying offer to Leon Powe, most likely ending his stay in Boston.
A fan favorite, Powe has defied odds his entire career, battling homelessness, injuries, and his lack of size (for an NBA power forward). The NBA is a cruel world, though, and, when Powe tore his ACL and meniscus in his left knee, the Celtics decided to cut him loose.
How do you let Powe go, Danny, Wyc, Doc, or whoever the hell made the decision? This is a guy who was once a homeless kid on the streets, a guy who became a father-figure and the man of the house at the youthful age of seven.
In case you didn’t know, that was when his little brother accidentally lit his house on fire, and the house burned down, taking with it the Powe’s last semblance of a normal life.
The family was left without a home, without a father (who had left the family when Leon was two), and without any hope, either.
His family bounced from one place to the next, vagabonds and nomads not by choice, but by necessity. Leon took on far greater responsibility than a kid his age should be forced to shoulder, becoming the de facto father of his five siblings.
When their mother was out working long hours to make ends meet, it was Leon at home watching the children. When the children were taken away from the mother, whose long hours at work got in the way of her parenting, and they were placed into foster care, it was Leon who kept the children hopeful and together.
When Leon’s mother died of a heart condition when he was only a junior in high school, it was Leon who comforted and consoled his siblings—it was Leon who made them continue to function through the brutally rough times.
Meanwhile, Leon was given a lifeline by his basketball talent. A consensus top-10 player in the 2003 high school class, Leon was poised to change his life by the skills he demonstrated on the 94’ x 50’ hardwood.
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