How long has Marshawn Lynch been a beast? At least since his teens.

As a high schooler at Oakland Tech, Lynch was a four-sport star and one of the area’s more celebrated prep athletes. On the basketball court, however, Lynch played second fiddle to Leon Powe, the future Gatorade All-American and Boston Celtic.

Marshawn Lynch's Beast Mode persona can be traced back to his teens. AP Photo/John Froschauer

At a recent Basketball Hall of Fame engagement in Springfield, Massachusetts, Powe retold one of his favorite Lynch stories, one that serves as a tidy microcosm of the running back’s wild intensity.

“He was on our varsity team, and I was in the game. ... Some dude took a hard foul on me. And I got up and I was mad, but then I was like, ‘You know what? It’s not even worth it. You don’t even know the dude.’ So I went to the bench. Marshawn looked at me. ‘I got you, big fella.’ That’s what he said.

“I said, ‘OK, Shawn. Just don’t do anything crazy. Just touch him up a bit.’ I forgot he was a football player. I forgot he had the football mentality.

“Coach put him in the game. The dude that hit me had a fast break, a breakaway. Marshawn was way back there, but as we know, his closing speed is out of this world. He shot like a bat out of hell, shot all the way down. The dude went up for a layup, and Marshawn just speared the guy. Took him right out. Then he walked off like he didn’t do anything. I’m saying, ‘No, Shawn, that ain’t what I was saying! Don’t hurt him! Man, I hope he gets up.’”

Powe is a cult sports hero around Boston, primarily for providing the bench spark that helped the 2008 Celtics win a championship.

So last February’s Super Bowl posed an interesting problem to him. On one side was his childhood friend and former teammate; on the other, the team representing Boston, the city he calls his adopted home.

So where did his allegiances lie?

“My initial stance on the whole situation was, may the best team win, but I want Marshawn to do well,” Powe said. “In any situation. That’s my guy.

“So when the last play happened ...” Powe trailed off. “I believe he should’ve got the ball. I thought the game was going to be over. ‘Well, Marshawn won. It’s all good. There’s about to be a party back in The Town.’

“When I saw them throw the ball, I must’ve jumped outta my seat. I’m not going to lie. I almost did a backflip, but I can’t do backflips, so it was like turning a half-cartwheel. I was so mad. I didn’t know what was going on. They had a timeout left.

“I tell everybody -- you can rationalize it however you want, but Marshawn should’ve got the ball, and they probably should’ve won a championship.”

Powe pointed out that although nobody knew it then, Oakland’s hypothetical championship party was right around the corner. Lynch was among the revelers who celebrated Golden State’s NBA championship last June.