Celtics Acquire Draft Rights to Leon Powe
Team trades future second round pick to Denver Nuggets
BOSTON – The Boston Celtics acquired the draft rights to University of California forward Leon Powe from the Denver Nuggets in exchange for a future second round draft pick.
Powe was a Consensus Second Team All-American as a sophomore at California. He is only the third player in school history to be named either First or Second Team All-American by The Associated Press, joining Darrell Imhoff (1960) and Jason Kidd (1994). He earned All-Pac-10 honors in both his freshman and sophomore seasons. Had a collegiate career scoring average of 17.8 ppg, currently ranking sixth all-time in Cal history, along with a rebounding average of 9.8 rpg, which is fourth highest in school history. He recorded 29 career double-doubles, and led his team in rebounding in 48 out of the 54 games in which he played. During his sophomore season, Powe led the Pac-10 in scoring (20.5 ppg) and rebounding (10.1 rpg), becoming only the sixth player in league history to accomplish this feat and the first Cal player since Mark McNamara in 1981-82. He was also one of only three players in the nation to average a double-double (points and rebounds). Powe scored 22 points and had a tournament-record 22 rebounds in the first round of the Pac-10 Tournament vs. USC in 2006, and exploded for a career-high 41 points on 14-for-17 shooting in a double-overtime victory over Oregon in the semifinals. He had a double-double (14 points, 12 rebounds) vs. North Carolina State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament as a Sophomore. As a freshman, Powe was named Pac-10 Freshman of the Year while averaging 15.1 ppg along with 9.5 rpg. He majored in Social Welfare at Cal.