BOSTON -- Sitting on the sidelines of TD Garden, where he played so many of his most impactful games, former Boston Celtics star Rajon Rondo chuckled when asked if he feels like a decade has passed since his team won the 2008 championship.

"Yes," said Rondo, now with the New Orleans Pelicans. "It does."

With Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen surrounded by youngsters like Rondo and Kendrick Perkins, Boston captured the title in 2008, lost a heartbreaking NBA Finals Game 7 to the Los Angeles Lakers two years later, and reached the edge of a Finals appearance again in 2012 before LeBron James and the Miami Heat knocked them off.

Rondo had it all then: All-Star appearances, deep playoff runs, and a hard-edged group of teammates around him. Hours before his first meeting with the Celtics this season, Rondo admitted he hasn't regained parts of the experience since.

"Obviously playing with that type of camaraderie, the chemistry that team had those four or five years we were together, it was obviously a brotherhood," he said. "But it's something you can't take for granted. Because I pretty much haven't had it since I left that group of guys."

Rondo has played for a different team every season since Boston traded him in 2014, suiting up for the Dallas Mavericks, Sacramento Kings, Chicago Bulls and now the Pelicans. Once famous for raising his level of play in big games, he hasn't competed in too many of those lately. His half-season with the Mavericks crashed and burned once the postseason arrived. The Kings missed the playoffs entirely. And after helping Chicago take the first two games of a playoff series against the Celtics last season, Rondo was sidelined by an injury for the rest of the first round as Boston took the next four games.

During the same time frame, the Celtics have reloaded their roster and climbed to the top of the Eastern Conference standings. Their rise has been rapid, but Rondo called it "no surprise."

"When I was there, we lost 18 straight, (Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge) turned it around in one year," Rondo said. "If guys buy into the system, believe in their coach, that goes a long way. When the coach can get the trust and the confidence of a team to believe in him, and everyone accepts what they're doing for the team, the good and the great of the team, it usually works out. And that's what he has those guys doing the last couple of years."

Steps from the parquet floor, Rondo compared his place as a veteran to the one Garnett held 10 years ago; fondly remembered Pierce's work ethic; and called Boston "home."

"But it's still a road game," Rondo said. "I'm coming out here to win. Everything else is irrelevant for the most part."

The memories aren't irrelevant, though.

"I remember nights I would come in the gym, and Paul wouldn't be in the gym -- he might be up top on the treadmill running, just getting his cardio up," Rondo said. "So it was all the little things that he did as a pro that helped me become the player I am today."

Added Rondo: "I'm looking for another (title). It's been a long time. Having rookies on the team now, I've got a 19-year-old rookie on my team. And he was in middle school. So it's kind of funny. So many young guys now. I think I'm in the situation where KG (Kevin Garnett) was when I came in, having such a young group of guys around you. It's kind of different."