Celtics

“My wife will tell you I was screaming for those guys when they won it just as much as anybody else because, like I said, I have love for those guys.”

For all of the joy Celtics fans experienced watching the team win its 18th championship, there may have been the tiniest tinge of mixed emotions at the fact that Marcus Smart was not on the roster for it.

Smart, 30, was drafted by Boston and played for the Celtics for the first nine years of his career before being traded in 2023 in a deal that sent Kristaps Porzingis in the other direction. A fan favorite, Smart’s departure was tough for both the player and fans. In a 2024 Grizzlies matchup against the Celtics at TD Garden, he was given a deservedly warm reception.

In a recent appearance on the “Run Your Race” podcast, Smart discussed how he felt watching his former teammates win a championship. Prefaced by a question about what it was like to see Celtics stalwarts Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum arrive in Boston in consecutive years as highly-touted draft picks, Smart eventually discussed the 2024 championship.

“It was great to see those two guys come in the way they came in and just dominate,” said Smart of Brown and Tatum’s initial contributions in Boston. “When they stepped on the floor, you were like, ‘We’ve got to watch out.’”

“It was no stopping them from the start. We [saw] that and we noticed it, and that’s why they’re where they’re at now,” said Smart. “Shout out to Jaylen and Jayson and the Boston Celtics. Congratulations on the championship.”

Smart, who helped the Celtics reach the finals in 2022, underscored that his ex-teammates earned their reward.

“They built that. They went through the mud. They didn’t skip any steps,” Smart said of the Celtics. “I was there with them for nine years of my career, and I [saw] it. It’s no coincidence that they reached their goal now. I’m just so proud of them. I was proud to be in the trenches with them, to know those guys, and to be able to go to work with them every day that I had a chance to do.”

After a pause, he continued by saying that, “I know everybody’s expecting me to be up here and be salty and [expletive].”

“There are no hard feelings from me,” Smart added. Still, he admitted feeling a range of emotions.

“It’s definitely a bittersweet feeling. It’s definitely tough, because like I said, I was in the trenches with them, so to not be able to finish what you started with those guys is definitely tough,” Smart explained. “But my wife will tell you I was screaming for those guys when they won it just as much as anybody else because, like I said, I have love for those guys. I know the work they put in. I’ve been through it.”

As for the trade that sent him away from Boston, Smart added to statements he’s made before. Namely that he wishes the Celtics had been a little more transparent about the matter. But the former Defensive Player of the Year concluded by reiterating he has “no hard feelings.”

Among many other points of discussion in the podcast, Smart also shared an interesting tidbit from his draft night back in 2014. The Celtics ended up taking him with the sixth pick, but he almost ended up a Laker instead.

“Ironically, funny enough I knew it was between the Lakers and Celtics,” he recalled of who was going to pick him. “They were tied in record that year, so Boston and [Los Angeles] flipped a coin that year. Boston won it so they got sixth. I could’ve easily been in L.A.”