After a turbulent run through the 2023 postseason, including falling behind 3-0 to the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals before nearly making NBA history that perhaps they would’ve completed if Jayson Tatum hadn’t injured his ankle on the first play of Game 7, Wyc Grousbeck demanded change.
He trusted the team’s president of basketball operations, Brad Stevens, to carry out that vision but had reached a point where running it back was no longer palatable.
That led to Boston reconfiguring its core, acquiring Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday at the expense of Marcus Smart and Robert Williams.
In addressing Smart’s departure on draft night last year, an emotional Brad Stevens discussed the difficulty in parting with a player who had become the heart and soul of the Celtics — an individual who helped the franchise reach the playoffs in each of his nine years in Boston.
But, upon returning to TD Garden as a member of the Memphis Grizzlies, the former sixth overall pick said he understood the organization’s decision.
“I tell people to this day, if it was me, (then) I make the same business decision as well,” expressed Smart.
The Flower Mound, Texas native also spoke with Inside The Celtics about how Boston shaped him and his message to a fan base that will forever be in his heart.
A few days after a championship parade down Boylston Street, a celebration of Banner 18 where some of the fans in attendance were sporting his jersey and multiple chants of “Marcus Smart” echoed from a crowd that totaled over a million people, the 30-year-old guard opened up about seeing his former team win without him.
“Shoutout to Jaylen (Brown), Jayson (Tatum), and the Boston Celtics,” stated Smart in a conversation with five-year NBA veteran Theo Pinson on Tidal League’s Run Your Race. “Congratulations on the championship. They built that. They went through the mud. They didn’t skip any steps. I was there with them for nine years of my career, and I seen it. It’s no coincidence that they reached their goal. I’m just so proud of them.
“I’m proud to have been able to be in the trenches with them, to know those guys, and to go to work with them every day when I had the chance to do it. I know everybody’s out there expecting me to be salty,” continued Smart. “It’s definitely a bittersweet feeling… It’s definitely tough because I was in those trenches with them. So, to not be able to finish what you started with those guys is definitely tough.”
As much as the Celtics’ former floor general wishes he was there to complete the quest for Banner 18, no one was happier to see this group reach the NBA summit than Smart.
“As my wife will tell you, I was screaming for those guys when they won it just as much as anybody else because I have love for those guys, and I know the work that they put into it, and I’ve been through it.”
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