Longtime Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart had a conversation with team president Brad Stevens in mid-June and was assured at that time that he would remain with the team this summer, Smart tells Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. A week later, he was gone, having been traded to the Memphis Grizzlies as part of a three-team package which sent Kristaps Porzingis to Boston.
“It was a shock,” Smart said. “My agent called my fiancée and she woke me up out of a sleep, literally, right after the deal had been made and I think [the media] had already tweeted it out. That’s how we found out.”
The Celtics had originally intended to include another guard, Malcolm Brogdon, as part of a three-team deal with the Los Angeles Clippers that would have landed them Porzingis. Those talks fell through, though, forcing Boston to pivot to the deal sending Smart to Memphis. Smart said he understands it’s a “business” and has no hard feelings toward the organization, even if he didn’t learn about his exit in the way he would have liked.
“Anybody who knows me knows that I’m the first one to tell people, you can’t put personal with business, it just doesn’t mix,” he said. “… But for me, it was just the [lack of] courtesy. They probably already knew they were thinking about trading me. They had this trade in their back pocket just in case something else didn’t happen.”
Smart enjoyed a solid run with the Celtics, even earning Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2022 en route to an NBA Finals appearance. His defense slipped somewhat in 2022-23, but he remained a valuable two-way leader on a club that finished just one win shy of a second consecutive Finals showing.
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